The Legend of Termina
by Subtraction
Summary: Uncomfortably awkward attempts at humor and drama, mahou shoujo elements, OOC-ness, Mary-Sues/Gary Stus and more. I wrote this when I was 12. I am ashamed. Finished, uploading as quickly as I can.
1. The Memories

This is hopefully the only author's note I'll ever make.

EDIT: I lied. I make notes later on to point out silly stuff.

I wrote this seven years ago. I remember getting excited over the finale, marveling at how the words seemed to roll so smoothly off my fingertips and feeling the swell of pride in my chest when I reached 100 pages (after I had changed the font to Courier New, that is).

But I'm not married to this story. The primary reason why I'm uploading this is because it's so terrible, horribly awkward and difficult to read that I thought maybe someone could get a laugh or two out of it.

I do not desire serious feedback. No chapters have been cut. The only edits I made were to reconstruct the formatting, which was lost when I retrieved the document from our ancient Windows 98 computer in the garage, and cutting walls of text into more paragraphs for ease of reading. All grammar mistakes, unnecessary capitalization, etc. were left in. Chapter 19 is my favorite.

That's all. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Memories**

"ARGGGHH!"

A young boy woke up to hear the sound of a woman yelling. Rubbing his eyes, he fought to stay awake until he got out of bed and opened the window to peek outside.

Down below was the patio of the house he was living in with his grandmother, and his little sister Aryll. A wooden fence made a wide circle around the pretty wooden house, perched on Outset Island.

His new next door neighbor was a woman from Windfall who raised Cuckoos. She had moved by a few months ago to get a break from city life.

His little sister loved the seagulls. His grandmother had a lot of knowledge and stories that he loved to listen to.

"By Dickens, my chicken! Link, come down here at once!" He heard his neighbor's voice holler. She was pointing to a brown-speckled bird, which was trapped in a metal trap. The jaws of the trap was clamped tightly around the bird's leg, and it was squawking loudly and tried to run away.

Groaning, Link pulled on his boots, climbed on the window ledge and dropped down - two stories. He rolled when he hit the ground to prevent from getting hurt.

"ARGGG!" the neighbor yelled again. "You give me a heart attack when you do THAT! Why can't you walk down the ladder and go through the front door like everyone else? Now, save poor Lavi from that trap of yours!"

As he approached the trap with the bird, he smiled to himself. That chicken was the first thing he had ever caught in his new trap. He had gotten it two weeks early for his 12th birthday from Tetra, a female pirate, but no one but Link knew who gave it to him.

His 12th from last year was certainly action packed; he had sailed all over the seas to save his little sister from the evil Ganon, with the help of a talking red boat - the King of Red Lions - a band of pirates, a winged tribe called the Rito, and many other people and gods. When he returned home, there had been a celebration, and Link had settled back into Island life. His birthday had only been a few days ago, and he had delightfully received a new shield from his grandmother, and a new sword from Orca, the swordsman next door.

He crawled toward the bird, to make it less startled than it was before. Then, he pried the jaws of the trap apart and was rewarded with a flurry of feathers smacking him in the face, making his already-messy blond hair even messier. "Lavi" flew up towards the woods.

"And she had to escape before I could clip her wings," the woman sighed. "Link, try to poach somewhere else next time, okay? And don't go after my animals."

"Okay, miss," Link replied. He closed the trap using a stick, and took it with him behind the house.

There was a secret he hid underneath the house. One day he blasted a rock behind the house with a bomb, and found a secret passageway that led to a room under it. It seemed to be carved out of rock and into the island, so it was like a dungeon. Only he, Tetra, and Aryll knew about this place, and he kept his findings in there.

Hanging on the wall was the family shield, which he would keep until his grandmother asked for it back. Next to it, hanging on a hook, was his Grappling hook, and the shelf next to it had the sail he bought from a person on Windfall Island a year ago. Sometimes he would take it down and unfold it, then lay on it to remind himself of his days at sea. Around the room were other things he had collected during his journey.

He put the trap on another shelf, stared at the shield for a moment, and looked at the folded garments on the table next to him. He picked them up and held them in his hands.

It was the outfit he wore on his 12th birthday. When the evil bird had snatched up Aryll, he had jumped on the Pirate ship without changing- and thus making some spirits think he was the Legendary Hero.

The golden feather next to it reminded him of the Rito tribe, the people who had wings that grew from their arms and had a beak for a nose. There was one particular Rito whose name was Quill, and he had helped Link many times. He had wanted to give the feather to him as thanks, but had never seen Quill since. Link felt upset for not being able to see him again, and he missed Dragon Roost Island and simply being on the seas with the King of Red Lions.

He was snapped from his thoughts by hearing footsteps behind him. He spun around to see Aryll, his little sister.

"You're down here again, big brother?" she asked in surprise. "You've been coming here twice a day now!" Her expression softened.

"I guess you miss being on an adventure, huh?"

"A little," Link confessed. "Maybe I'm getting a little tired of this peaceful island life, with same everything. Same rocks to jump on, same lookout, same houses, same people."

His sister laughed. "You've said the word 'same' so many times I forgot what it means!" She giggled again, putting a slight smile on Link's face.

"Well, I came down here to let you know that breakfast is starting to get cold. You've been in here for a little while now," Aryll said with a frown.

"Gosh, you're right!" Link exclaimed. "I'm hungry!"

He put the garments back on the table and hurried outside, his little sister watching him run out. Silent, Aryll walked over to where he had left the costume. She fingered the soft cloth fondly as she remembered her first comment about it : "It looks kinda like you'll be hot it that, Link." Then she put those down and looked at a black box sitting on a shelf. She knew it held the legendary Windwaker, a magical and ancient baton used for calling the help of the gods. She turned and ran outside.


	2. An Old Friend

**Chapter 2: An Old Friend**

Aryll had just walked into the house, when she heard her grandmother calling.

"Aryll! Go out to the balcony, there's something you should see." She ran outside to the wooden platform by the house and saw Link looking at something in the sky.

"Wow..."

A gigantic crow, far larger than a tame normal one, was soaring across the sea. It had a bronze or copper armor covering its head and the top half of its beak, except for its blue eyes. Aryll ran back in to get her telescope, and went back out, handing it to Link. He took it and looked through.

"It's a crow, alright," he reported. "And a pirate ship behind it. They're pointing the cannon at it..." The bird flew right over their house.

"Uh oh."

"Heads up!" The bird screeched, hurting their ears. "They're coming! Get inside!"

Aryll and Link ran back inside and shut the door, not pausing to wonder how the bird could talk.

BOOM.

The cannonball whistled as it headed straight for the giant crow. Aryll winced and closed her eyes, knowing what was going to happen. But they didn't hear any cry from the bird. Link peeked outside and saw it was still soaring, then landed on their house.

"He escaped!" he announced, and Aryll wiped a tear from her cheek. Link cautiously walked out and saw the pirate ship still there, but it was approaching quickly.

"AHOY!" He yelled as loudly as he could. Much to his joy, he saw the familiar mast of the pirate ship he rode on a year ago. A female pirate with a red bandanna and blue vest waved from the crow's nest, and he waved back. The ship drew nearer, and he was overjoyed to see for sure it was Tetra in the 'nest!

"How's Island life?" she hollered back. "I bet it is terribly boring, eh?" The ship docked by the shore and lowered the ramp. Tetra climbed down from the crow's nest and boarded off the ship. Link jumped off the balcony to go meet her.

"Why are you back so soon?" he asked, panting. Tetra smiled.

"We're chasing that crow. The bird perched on your house stole something of ours and we've been chasing it all over the sea. It's been like this for days.

"He took an artifact -sorry swabbie, won't tell you what it is - that is of a great value and we want it back."

She looked up at the giant black crow on Link's house, and it puffed up its feathers angrily, making it looked bigger than before.

"I took it for the right of my kind," he chirped. "Our way of life is threatened at the moment." Then, it opened its wings and took off, heading to the north-west, flying against the wind.

"Isn't he heading toward the Forsaken Fortress?" Link asked.

"Yes," said Tetra, her spirit down and her eyebrows furrowed in anger. "He is flying against the wind, too. We'll never be able to catch him. We might as well have to wait for the wind's direction to change..." She faced the direction the crow had flown off too, and snuck a glance at Link. She smiled, with an look in her eyes that said, "Inspiration!".

"You know, you can probably help."

"Oh no, it's Tetra again."

"All you have to do is jump on our ship and come along."

"And then stick me in a barrel and shoot me over the wall of Forsaken Fortress, sending me to the fate of crashing into a wall and losing all of my weapons."

"Actually, that's a good idea."

"You must be kidding." Link crossed his arms over his chest as he said that.

"Don't be talking like to Princess Zelda."

"Sorry, your Royal Highness."

"Well, I was thinking of something else."

"And what's that?"

"Your Windwaker," Tetra answered in triumph. "Use it to change the direction of the wind, or warp us there with a cyclone or something. If we get there faster, we'll have a better chance of getting back the Golden Talon."

Link pondered, and realized it.

" 'The Golden Talon'? That is the thing that crow stole?"

"Yes."

"What does it do?"

"I'll tell you about it if you come along."

He paused at Tetra's answer, then looked behind him at his home. This was his chance for an adventure! But he would have to leave his family behind - again.

"I'll discuss it with my folks," he said.

"Okay, alright," the pirate answered. "But I won't be here all day."

* * *

"How long will you be gone?" Link's grandmother asked.

"I don't know," Link confessed. "But I'm sure it won't be more than a year."

"Can I come with you?" Aryll asked.

"I am not sure about that, Aryll," Link answered. "I don't know how dangerous it will be."

"I cannot believe I'm saying this," Link's grandmother said, "but isn't Aryll old enough now to go overseas, let alone by herself too?"

"Yeah!" Aryll piped up. "I am nine years old, after all. I'm gonna turn ten next month, too!"

"Well..." Link pondered.

"Please?"

"Alright."

"YES!" Aryll jumped for joy. "I can't wait to see Niko, and Senzo, and Gonzo..."

Later, the two siblings were under the house, again.

Link was busy trying to figure out what she should bring, when he had an idea.

"You really are 9 years old, right?"

"Yeah, so?" his little sister answered from the platform above his head. She had climbed up there using the ladder, and it was where she kept some of her findings. She was busying herself with polishing her telescope, which she would take along.

"Would you be brave enough to be in a battle?"

"Believe me, I was tough enough to survive being picked up by a giant bird, locked up in a cell for a month, and keep my breakfast down on the pirate ship." She laughed at her remark. "I think I could handle it."

"Great!" Link said happily as he took down his old sword from its shelf, along with a shield, a bow with arrows, and his boomerang not far behind, and some other items.

"Next stop: Orca's house!"

* * *

As they crawled back outside, Tetra was waiting for them.

"We're going to leave in one hour. You have time to prepare yourself completely..." She took a look at Link, then Aryll.

"Got pants under your dress, Aryll?" she asked. Aryll nodded. Tetra smiled.

"That's good, because if you're going to help Link battle monsters and that sort of stuff, you'll have freedom of movement. All you need is a shirt and you're good to go."

"Okay," Aryll said as she followed Link toward their house for her to change.


	3. Aye! And we're off!

**Chapter 3: "Aye! And we're off!"**

"Welcome back, Link," a man with a white beard and no hair said. He was holding his usual spear in his left hand. "And welcome, sister of Link."

"Hi again, Orca," Link said. "We're here to see if you could give Aryll a lesson in swordplay."

The siblings were now at Orca's home, a circular room with weapons lined on the walls and a board of wood carved to look like a fish leaning against the wall. Orca was a man who loved to exercise and specialized in fight and swordplay. Link had learned how to fight with a sword, and got his own from the man.

"Ready, Aryll?" Orca said. "Think you're agile enough to wield a sword?"

"Yes, I'm ready," Aryll, now with a shirt and pants, said. Orca then went to one of the walls in the room and took down a light wooden sword.

"This we can use for training," he explained. "If you pass the test, I will give you a real sword of your own." He handed it to Aryll and she took it in her left hand. Link took his own sword out, feeling that he could help in some way. The three took their places so that they faced each other. In unison, they bowed.

"First lesson!" Orca barked. "Horizontal slice! Link, do that to me." Link stepped forward and demonstrated the slice, hitting the wood of the spear as Orca blocked.

"Don't fear for my safety, Aryll," Orca said. "Try it now, and do this until I say 'very good'!"

Link stepped back to watch his sister use a sword for the first time. She concentrated and swung the sword out in front of her, hitting the spear.

"Good!" Orca said. "Put in a little more power, and go!"

She did this three more times until Orca was satisfied, and they continued the lesson, until she learned the parry defensive attack.

* * *

"Whew," Aryll said. "That was hard work." She and Link were now sitting on the porch of Grandma's house, taking a break before leaving. She looked down happily at the gleaming silver blade of the sword on her lap. "I'm so glad I have my own now."

"Now all you need is a shield," Link said. "I have one for myself already, the mirror one, so I think it is time that you use this one." He reached for the shield on his back and handed it to her. It was plain wood, but it had the Triforce carved into it, with the picture of a golden eagle underneath. It was the family shield. Aryll gasped in happiness.

"I used to think about how it would feel to actually touch it and hold it, ever since grandma told me the story behind the shield on the wall," she said. "And there it is! Oh, thank you sooo much-" She picked up the sword on her lap and laid it next to her, then leaned over and hugged Link. Link was surprised at first, then smiled.

"You're welcome. However, we need to stow away on the pirate ship now..."

"You're right! Let's go, I don't want to keep Tetra and the crew waiting!"

They bid their good-byes to the village and climbed aboard the ship, trying not to fall over with the sway of the deck. Tetra walked up behind them, as another two pirates picked up the boarding ramp and leaned it against the bulkhead.

"Anchors aweigh! Hold the tiller steady!" she called to the crew, and they scurried across the deck to follow her orders. The sail came down from the mast, and the gong was sounded.

"Aye! And we're off!" Tetra yelled to the islanders as the ship slowly moved away from the dock. Seagulls were cawing and the wind blew with the scent of the seas as Aryll and Link took their last look at home before their first great adventure - together.

Tetra looked at them out of the corner of her eye. They looked like they were homesick already.

"You make me sick," she said, and smiled. "Just like last year."


	4. Hazelwood's Terror

Author's note:

There's a heavy "Voyage of the Basset" reference in this one.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Hazelwood's Terror**

Aryll and Link sat together on the deck, in the shade of some wooden barrels. Both of them had their shields on their backs and swords in their scabbards, slung over their shoulders. Link had taken out his delivery bag, and he was opening it to see what he and Aryll put inside.

"Here's the golden feather... maybe I'll run into Quill during his mail duties."

"Here's a Hyoi Pear I put in! The seagulls might be useful."

"The Windwaker is right..." Link reached in and took out a black box. "...here." Aryll's eyes glittered.

"I've never heard you conduct with it before! Are you going to change the direction of the wind?" Aryll asked. Link licked his finger and held it to the air as he looked at his compass.

"The wind is blowing east, but we have to go north-west. Yeah, looks like I'll be conducting the Wind's Requiem." Aryll grinned at his answer. Link opened the box to see the silver of the magic baton, with sapphires set on the handle. He took it out and handled it for a second, first with his right hand, then his left. He settled on his left and held up a finger on his other hand. He took a deep breath.

Tetra, who was walking by, stopped to see the event.

Link concentrated and sparkles seemed to appear out of nowhere, hovering around the tip of the baton. He brought the sparkling Windwaker above his head, slid it down to his left, and swung it to his right- then pointed that way! The ship rocked slightly, and he sat down on his bottom in a sudden motion.

There was silence until Tetra and Aryll clapped several times. Link beamed as he wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

"Whew," he said. "I haven't played that for a while." Aryll took out her telescope and looked through it towards the horizon.

"I think I see Forsaken Fortress," she said, and handed the scope to Link. "Why don't you tell be if I'm right or not." Link peered through it and saw the summit seem to slash through the sky, with half of a pirate ship on top of the fortress.

"That's it, alright."

Ever since Link defeated the evil Ganondorf, the fortress had been abandoned - as far as outsiders could tell. They didn't know if some one else had taken over it, since no one dared to enter it, even after the downfall of Ganon. With the news of the large crow heading toward the fortress, Link had a feeling that the place was now inhabited by the giant birds. Once he had to defeat a large bird like that, but it was the servant of Ganon.

But the fortress must have been taken over, because the pirate ship that used to be on top of the fortress was there again- it had been previously burnt by Valoo, the Sky god. Who would want to put it back up there again, and rebuild it?

* * *

It was almost dark when the ship arrived at the walls of the Forsaken Fortress. The gray walls gave the place an eerie feeling of dread. The spotlights weren't being used, except for one that was pointed at the pathway to the top of the fort.

Aryll had fallen asleep on Link's shoulder, and Link had fallen asleep with his head against the barrel behind him. Tetra came up from her cabin and walked across the deck to the siblings. She knelt down beside them.

"Psst. Wake up." she whispered. The two took no notice. Tetra sighed and looked up to Niko's voice.

"The entrance is blocked by a wooden door, ma'am," he stated. Tetra smiled as she stood up.

"I'm trying to wake up these two half-pirates... Go ahead and blow up the door."

"Aye, Tetra." He saluted and ran to the bow of the ship. He called out the orders to the other pirates, and they readied the cannon.

"Fire!"

_BOOM._

"AUGH!"

Aryll had woken up with a start, waking Link up and he bumped his head on the barrel. He groaned and put his hand behind his head.

"Ow ow ow..."

"Sorry, big brother."

"Heh heh!" Tetra laughed as she watched them. "We woke you two up and blasted the entrance at the same time!" Link stuck out his tongue at the pirate, as Aryll recovered.

"I forgot to tell you what the Golden Talon is, though," Tetra realized. She sat down cross-legged on the deck next to them, and leaned against the barrels. "I may as well tell you now...

"The Golden Talon is an ancient artifact that has been passed down though a tribe called the Crowhens. The giant bird that stole the Golden Talon is one of them. By the way, the bird that picked me up last year was a modified species created by Ganon, but that tribe doesn't exist anymore.

"Anyway, the Talon is important to the Crowhens because it is the only way they can choose a new chieftain. They choose a new one every five years, but I don't know how they use the Talon in the ceremony. We obtained the Talon 3 years ago, 2 years before I met you, 2 years after their last ceremony."

"What about the Crowhens?" Aryll asked. "What are they like?"

"They are a very independent tribe, but also intelligent, like the Rito tribe. And that tribe is located in Forsaken Fortress. I'm always hearing rumors that they can shapechange - turn into human beings, and also Rito. Humans and Rito are the closest relations to their kind, and also the only creatures they can transform into. But that is only what I've heard."

"So, why are you after them?" Link asked. Tetra was silent for a moment, staring off into space, before answering.

"There... used to be another ship I used to own. This ship I had for a much longer time than the one you're on right now, and it was called the Hazelwood's Terror. It was the first one I have ever had, too, and it was beautiful. Much more beautiful than this one. Many other pirates would offer me everything they had for that ship, but I turned them all down. It was the only one of its kind. It went over the seas like a breeze..." Tetra had a small smile on her face, but realized that she was speaking to someone who was listening, and frowned. She continued:

"And because of those birds, it sank. Sank, with all of the goods I have ever collected with my crew. And there was some pretty priceless and valuable things in there. Maps... treasure of every kind... Have you ever heard of the Ghost Ship?" she asked. Aryll shook her head as Link nodded.

"The ghost ship that haunts the seas whenever the moon looks out... that, my friends, is the ghost of Hazelwood's Terror.

"Anyway, the Crowhens set the ship on fire, and it sunk. They blamed me for taking captive one of their kind. Well, the culprit wasn't me. It was one of Ganondorf's followers, who still believed that someday, the evil Ganon would once rise again."

Aryll shivered and Link put his arm around his sister.

"They haven't been seen ever since Link sealed away Ganon," Tetra explained, "so they have all disappeared. But what I do know is that the Crowhens highly disliked Ganondorf, and they were more than happy when he was gone."

"Miss Tetra, we're here." A pirate said as he passed by.

"Great," she replied. "Now we can stick Link in a barrel and shoot him over the walls of Forsaken Fortress."

A look of horror and slight anger crossed Link's face as Tetra tried to explain it was a joke, that the wooden door was already blasted and there was no reason for her to do it anyway, and Aryll fought to keep control of her laughter.


	5. We meet again

**Chapter 5: We meet again**

"I will now tell you what will happen," Tetra said. She, Link, and Aryll were still on the pirate ship, but this time they were standing at the bow, looking out at Forsaken Fortress.

"We have the entrance blasted, so what you are going to do is: Get in one of our small rowboats, and row over there, into the fortress. Then, persuade the Crowhens to give us back the Golden Talon."

"What about us?" Link asked. "What do we get?"

"Oh, but it won't be just walking in and out," Tetra replied, ignoring Link's question. "There will be much, much more." She had a grin on her face, and the two siblings suspected something was up.

Link and Aryll clambered onto a rowboat that was about to be lowered to the water by ropes.

"Hold on," Tetra said. "Aryll, I would like to give you something. You don't have any long-distance weapons, do you?" she asked. Aryll shook her head.

"I was going to give her my boomerang," Link truthfully said, but was ignored again. Tetra handed an object wrapped in black cloth to Aryll.

"Can I open it now?" Aryll asked. The female pirate nodded. Aryll unfolded the cloth to reveal - a slingshot!

"Wow," she said. "Thank you so much!" Tetra smiled, and the boat was finally lowered to the water.

"Good luck, half-pirates," she said. "Good luck."

* * *

Link took a hold of the oars and started to row, as his little sister looked ahead.

"Tetra said that there was going to be much more than just walking in and out," Aryll said. "I wonder what that means?"

"I... pant... have been here... pant... twice," Link said, still rowing. They were almost past the fortress walls. "And Ganon had taken over this place, so everything was in tip-top security. First time, I did a lot of sneaking around in a barrel. Second time, it was fighting a lot of moblins, bokoblins, and miniblins..." he panted, and took a short 10 second break, then continued to row.

"I can't even tell if we are helping the bad guys or the good guys, since the whole thing going on right now is so complicated, the whole story that Tetra told us," Aryll said. "And they can shapechange?"

"Only humans and Rito," Link answered. "Oh, we're in. Don't speak loudly or they will know of our presence immediately."

"Actually, we already know," an unfamiliar voice said. Surprised, Link stopped rowing and he and his sister looked around for the source of the voice. Then, they saw a man with jet black hair, standing on the dock. He was wearing only pants that stopped at the knees, with no shirt, but he had designs painted on his chest and back of his arms. Then, with a puff of smoke, he turned into the very same crow with copper armor they had seen earlier that day. The two in the boat just stared, and didn't notice when the boat bumped against the dock that the crow was standing on.

"Our chieftain wants to see you," it spoke. "How could we not hear the racket you made when you and the pirate crew blasted down the door?" The crow walked (or hopped, he couldn't walk) away toward the main part of the fortress. Scared, Link and his sister followed.

Once inside, they were walking for a while, up staircases and through doorways, until they went out a large door.

Link saw the area where he had fought the evil bird of Ganon's. The scratch marks from the bird's talons were still there, but the arena had been converted into a sort of a ceremonial circle, with markings on the ground. Aryll did not know where the scratches came from, but she assumed there was once a fight there.

Still walking, the three went up a ramp and into the ship that was on top of the summit of the Fortress.

The inside of the once-a-pirate-ship did not look the same as when Ganon inhabited it. The first thing Link noticed that there were no lamps; there was torches instead, but they still produced the same amount of lighting. The wooden floor was not covered in red carpet anymore, and the curtains on the windows were gone, letting the wind come in freely. Other than those, the room was the same as the last time Link saw it. Aryll, on the other hand, had never seen the room before.

A man with white hair was standing at the window, his tannish colored hands behind him. He had a long robe, made of blue, green, gray, and mostly red with a medieval like hem. Hearing the Crowhen with Link and Aryll enter, he turned around... and Link's hand flew up to his mouth in surprise. It was the Chieftain of the Rito tribe!

"...Link?" the Chieftain said in disbelief. "Why are you...?" Link and the Chieftain stared at each other for a moment, and the Crowhen broke the silence.

"Chieftain, the two humans here were found outside the fortress with a pirate crew - the same one that has been after us - and they came in..." But the Chieftain ignored him, and spoke to Link.

"Link," he said gently, "Why have you come here?"

"Well, um... You blamed Tetra for something she didn't do, and set her ship on fire... And so she was so mad that she stole the Golden Talon... but then a Crowhen took it back, and so for revenge, Zelda sent us to talk you into letting her take it."

The Chieftain listened patiently to every word, until Link said Zelda instead of Tetra- probably because he had been used to yelling her name while fighting Ganon.

" 'Zelda' ? Are you saying that the head of the crew is a girl and her name is Princess Zelda?"

"Well, her name is actually Tetra, but she didn't find out she was a princess until a year ago. Now, what are you doing here?" Link replied. The Chieftain looked sadly at Link, and spread his arms/wings.

"I suppose now is the time to tell the truth," he said, and closed his eyes. The feathers on his arms turned black as his hair did, before there was a puff of smoke.

A few seconds later, standing in the Chieftain's place was a large Crowhen, larger than the one at the back of the room that had escorted the siblings to the room they were in. Instead of copper head armor, it had platinum, with elaborate designs carved in it, and a plate of armor going over his chest that fitted to every curve of his body. It had feather designs carved into it, with the symbol of the Triforce in the middle. Wicked sharp claws were on its feet. The bird opened its brown eyes.

"It is true that us Crowhens can shapechange," he said, in a voice deeper than that of the Chieftain's. "And as a Rito, I am known as the former Chieftain of the Rito tribe; Prince Komali has taken my place. As for the form I am in now, I am known as the Chieftain of the Crowhens; Chieftain Wollf." He unfolded a wing and stuck it out in front of him, and bowed, then stood straight.

"I am quite pleased that you have come here, Link. I know that you are in confusion of what has happened right now, and is ready to ask many questions..." Link nodded in agreement.

"...and you happen to be seeking the Golden Talon. Well, these days, it is our only way of testing one's courage to see if he can take the position of being the Chieftain of the Crowhens. No human or Rito has ever seen the ceremony, since we tend to keep these things private. As for the Talon, I have noticed that the pirates took better care of it than we do. So, I have been thinking that, when we are finished with the ceremony, you may take the Talon for the next five years and bring it back for the ceremony, then take it again.

"However, we will do this on one condition. A member of the Rito tribe has been missing. He disappeared a couple of months after you sealed away Ganon... His name is Quill." Link and Aryll gasped.

"Yes, the same old mysterious Quill," Wollf said, amused at the sibling's reactions. "You will need to find him. But just why is he so important...? Well, it is..." The chieftain leaned down and beckoned, with a feather, for Link and Aryll to come closer, and he whispered:

"...that he is-"

"SSEEEEEAAAAAAANNNNN!"

"Oh no." Link and Aryll turned around to see a young Rito (about Link's age) with clothes similar to Quill's, and with wings, bound into the room, and attempt to hug the huge crow. He groaned and his feathers briefly turned white, and then with a puff of smoke turned back into the Rito Chieftain.

"Uncle Sean! How was your day?" the Rito cooed. "I bet it was fun!"

"My niece," the Chieftain said, embarrassed. Aryll giggled.

"Oh, what do we have here?" the Rito girl said as she turned around to face the siblings. "Bro and sis?" Aryll nodded. Link raised an eyebrow and looked confused. The Rito laughed.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Natasha." she said, and curtsied. "I'm the Chieftain's niece."

"Nice to meet you, Natasha," Link replied, and he and his sister bowed in response. "I'm Link, and this is my little sister Aryll."

"I know already," she said playfully. "I heard from Dad, all the way back from home."

"You're a Crowhen?" Aryll asked. Natasha didn't say anything, though. She was fondly playing with her brown hair, where the ends were white. "I have Valoo's scale already. I don't live on Dragon Roost Island anymore, but I don't mind. Now, I think I should show you around the place." She turned to face the Chieftain.

"Shouldn't I, Uncle Sean?" she asked. The Chieftain sighed.

"I suppose I will have to tell you later, Link," he said. "Are you going to stay the night?" Link shrugged.

"The pirates are still waiting for me," he replied. "I'll have to check with them first."

"You don't have to do that," a voice said from nowhere. Everyone except Link was looking around the room, puzzled. Link burst out laughing, and quickly stopped.

"Sorry," he apologized as he brought out a glowing blue stone on a string. It was his Gossip stone, with Tetra on the other side.

"Hah hah hah!" Tetra was laughing. "I never knew people could have such reaction to a stone!" Aryll, noticing the source of the voice was the stone, stood next to Link so she could see.

"I kinda overheard everything," Tetra said. "And I wanted to save you the trouble. Well, while we were waiting, the King of Red Lions stopped by for a visit. Turns out he has been pining for you-" Tetra, Link, and Aryll started to laugh again. "-and that he could take it from here. He knows the whole story already, partly because I'm in a rowboat right next to him, and he is watching too."

"Oh," Link said.

"Hello Link, and Aryll," a deep voice said from the Gossip stone. "This is the King of Red Lions. Yes Link, that is true, I kinda have been missing you..." Link had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. "And Tetra and I have been watching everything through your Gossip stone. I believe that finding Quill could take a while, and the Pirates have many other things to do- such as steal bombs, for instance. I have decided that I could take over so that I may help you cross the Great Sea in search of Quill."

"Wow, that sounds cool!" Aryll exclaimed.

"I suppose we can do that," Link replied. "Are you okay with that, sis?"

"Yes!" his sister replied. "I can't wait!"

"I have also overheard arrangements for you to stay there the night," the King spoke. "I do not have a sail anymore, so I would not be able to go anywhere anyway. You may stay the night, and one of the Crowhens should escort you to the dock where I will be waiting in the morning. However, I do not have permission to enter the premises..." Overhearing this, the Chieftain walked over to where Link and Aryll were standing.

"I have given them permission to stay," he said to the Gossip Stone, "and I will also give orders to my men to let you come in."

"Thank you, Sean," the King replied.

"Please, call me Chief," the Chieftain said. "Sean is just my nickname. Along with Wollf as my surname..."

"No, Sean's your real name!" Natasha said from the window. The chieftain's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink.

"Well, anyway, we should probably leave you alone now," Tetra said. "The King of Red Lions will be at the dock tomorrow morning. We will be on our way to Dragon Roost to tell Pri- Chieftain Komali about how you're going to find Quill and everything."

"Alright then," Link said.

"That's all, I think. Good night." At this answer, the stone stopped glowing, and it fell onto Link's hand. He put it back in his pocket, and looked at Aryll. Her face was beaming.

"Wow, we're going to see the King of Red Lions!" she said. Then, she stopped smiling.

"Who's he?"

"I think you'll have to see for yourself." Link said, and laughed mentally. He couldn't wait to see the look on Aryll's face when she sees a talking boat!


	6. Friends and Rivals

**Chapter 6: Friends and Rivals**

"And there's the gallery," Natasha pointed into a room, with Link and Aryll following her. "Humans call them 'kitchens'. But why would you call it a kitchen if we're practically a quarter talon from the sea?"

Natasha was giving Link and Aryll a tour around Forsaken Fortress. The Crowhen tribe had officially renamed it "Feather Flats" but the place was nowhere close to the name, except for an occasional feather.

"And that is the armoury," Natasha said, pointing into another room. This one had no door, so Link casually peeked in.

"That's sure is a lot of armour and weapons," he noted.

"Yes," Natasha replied. "But because of the peace we have been having lately, we don't really have a large need for it. More like small, since you never know when someone may try to drive us out. On to the next room..." she started walking again. Aryll yawned.

"Getting tired?" Link asked her. "Don't worry. You'll get used to being up this late soon."

"Alright," Aryll sleepily answered, and rubbed her eyes.

"'Hoy, 'tasha." A human with a folded paper in his hand stepped out into the hallway in front of the Rito girl. "This note is for the guy in bunk 64. Could you give it to him?"

"Aye," she replied, took the note, and put it in a delivery bag identical to the Rito tribe's bags. "I'm on the way there, anyway."

"Thank you 'tasha," the man replied, and went back into the room he was in.

Natasha, Link, and Aryll were walking down a long hallway, when Aryll asked the question: "What was that about?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I never mentioned this to you," Natasha said. "I am the delivery gal for Feather Flats. Sort of like a Rito postman, but I stay in this one area, delivering messages from one part of the flats to the other."

"Oh." Aryll and Link said in unison, and they continued to walk in the silence.

"Where are we going?" Aryll spoke up again.

"We're going back to the peak where Uncle is, after the tour," Natasha replied. "And on the way there, I'll have to deliver this message. Oh, and the room we're going to just happens to be right..." The trio walked up to a door, with the number 64 on it.

"...here." She knocked on the door, and a Rito with plain clothes answered it.

"Message for you, sir," Natasha said curtly, and handed it to him.

"Thanks 'tasha," the Rito said. "Say, who are your friends here?"

"This is Link and his younger sister Aryll."

"Hello, Link and Aryll. Welcome to Feather Flats. Well, thank you for the message."

"You're welcome."

"G'night." the Rito closed the door, and Natasha started walking again, with Link and Aryll trying to keep up.

"Are they all like that?" Aryll started asking questions again. "All kinda straight-ahead?"

"You're asking a lot of questions today, Aryll." Link teased.

"Well, yes," Natasha answered. "We plan to... well, one way to put it is that once we decide on something, we stay to it. No ifs, and's or but's. And we aren't forced to do it, I guess. It's the Crowhen's personality."

The trio turned a corner and they kept walking. Finally, they came to the familiar doorway that led to outside, and Natasha pushed it open.

"...What the he-...?"

War had broken out on the platform! Grunts and cries were filling the night air, and torches blazed, casting a red glow over the scene. Swords clashed, and Link was sure he saw a small explosion on the far corner. Rito guards and Crowhens were in battle with fearsome looking pirates. The pirates had long swords drawn out, and were muscular...

"I thought you said the pirates you were with were nice," Natasha said dryly. "I can't believe this is happening." Natasha turned to face Link, who was standing next to her.

"They're not the pirate crew I know!" Link cried.

"I can't see Tetra," Aryll announced, squinting at the battle and flurry. "I can't see her at all."

"Okay, so it's not them," Natasha replied. Now that her anger was passed, she was feeling anxious. "What do we do now?"

One single pirate noticed the trio standing at the doorway, the door closed behind them without noticing. Link, noticing that the pirate noticed them, turned around to open the door. It wouldn't budge.

"The door won't move!" Link yelled over the noise. The pirate drew his sword and ran towards them.

"RUN!"

Natasha, Aryll, and Link ran off in different directions. But the pirate was following Link! Link ran straight into the battle and dodged between the fighting and flurry. As he reached the other side of the platform, he slowed down and put one hand on the wall to steady his breathing. He looked around and saw that the pirate wasn't chasing him anymore. He sighed and said:

"Whew."

"YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!"

Link jumped and looked forward to see the pirate running toward him at full speed! Link pulled out his sword and shield, ready to battle, and was keeping an eye out for Aryll and Natasha.

The pirate pulled a low swing and Link dodged it, then he tried a vertical slice, but the pirate blocked it with his own sword. Their swords clanged as both tried to pull tricks but were unsuccessful.

"Too evenly matched, eh?" the pirate growled in a deep voice. "Let's see how you'll do with... this!"

He swung the flat blade of his sword low to the ground toward Link. Link didn't know what happened next until he saw the ground rise up to him, and he felt intense pain in his forehead. The pirate laughed as Link slowly came to a crouching position, then rose.

"LINK!" He heard Aryll's voice scream. "Help me!"

"Aryll!" he spun around in place, looking for the source of the yell.

"Say bye-bye," the pirate laughed, and he hit the top of Link's head with the hilt of his sword...

...and everything went black.


	7. We meet again again

**Chapter 7: We meet again... again**

"Link."

"Link, wake up."

"Liiiiiinnnnnkk..."

"Pull yourself together, now!"

"LINK!"

"Wha-?" Link was being shaken awake by a hand on his shoulder. The silence around him seemed unnatural, until he noticed he wasn't in the battlefield anymore. He seemed to be in an empty ship's cabin, with wooden floors, a door with a single window that had bars on it, two lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and the rocking of the ship and occasional creaking.

Link looked up to see the face of a Rito with brown hair, but the red eyes looked familiar...

"Link. It's me, Quill." the Rito spoke in a calm voice.

"...Quill?" Link said, surprised, and more fully awake. "But you look so different now!" Link and Quill stood up, and they got their first good look at each other. Then, Link noticed something.

"Quill... what happened to your wings?" Quill looked down briefly at his arms at his side. He was a Rito, but the feathers on his arms were gone.

"It is a rather long and sad story," he replied. "But isn't there other things to worry about?"

"Aryll!" Link realized. "Where is she?"

"She is in another room with my daughter."

"'Daughter'?" Link asked, puzzled. Quill smiled slightly and held up his hands in defeat.

"You got me. My daughter, Natahsa. And I am the brother of Chieftain Wollf."

"But Wollf is a Crowhen. How can you be a brother with him?" Link asked.

"There is a little secret about the Crowhens that I know." Quill then said in a low and quiet voice:

"Once in a blue moon, a Crowhen will hatch without the power to shapechange. They will always hatch in the form that it will most likely use in its life, whether it will be able to shapechange or not. So, it turns out that I am indeed a Crowhen; but I was born as one of the very few who couldn't shapechange."

"I never knew.." Link said quietly, looking down at the floor. "I'm sorry." Quill walked over and patted him on the back.

"There, there. It's okay; I don't mind not being able to shapechange. I don't really see how it would help, either."

"Does the Rito know that there is another race called the Crowhens?"

"Good question," Quill said, and pondered. "Most of them do... but not all of 'em. They do know that a 'different tribe' of Rito come every year at a certain time to receive a scale from the great Valoo. Obviously, because there isn't another wind spirit in this world." Link nodded in agreement.

"Why have you been at Feather Flats, anyway?" Quill asked.

"Well, let's see..." Link said. He told the whole story, starting where Link and Aryll saw the Crowhen being attacked by Tetra's crew, and all the way up to the war on Feather Flats. Quill nodded or said "Yes, okay," whenever Link paused for breath or simply talking.

"Well, the little Crowhen we all thought had been taken by Tetra's crew turned out to be by one of Ganondorf's followers," Quill confirmed, "and Ganon took the little guy and turned him into that evil bird that dropped Tetra on Outset Island. Interesting story, but I don't see why they would blame Princess Zelda."

"They didn't know she was a princess," Link countered. "And it all happened a while before I met her, right?"

"I suppose it is right to give them the Golden Talon to keep safe for 5 years, but we would have to know that we can trust her and the crew to give it back for a couple of months. Also, we have the problem of getting it."

"Isn't it with Chieftain Wollf?"

"No. The invasion of the pirates happened because they wanted the Golden Talon, too."

Link fell silent, and Quill sat down, leaning against the wall, and started rubbing his temples. Link noticed for the first time that Quill looked unnaturally tired and stressed. Feeling guilty, he sat down next to him.

"They have apparently been watching Miss Tetra's ship from a distance and figured out that there was a great treasure hidden in Feather Flats," Quill explained. "Pirates have a tendency to go wherever there is treasure, and they have a tendency to watch other pirates to see what they are going to attempt next."

"Oh!" Link replied. Then he murmured, "I'm sorry... did I insult you?"

"Actually, no," Quill said. "You're the kind of person who won't do that, unlike me-"

"Hey!" Link said, pretending to be insulted. Quill laughed.

"Why are you here, Quill?" Link asked, after they both had a good laugh.

"I'm not exactly sure," he replied, serious again. "What I do know is that they stole my scale, thinking it would be of some value."

"That's cruel!" Link exclaimed. "And that made you lose your wings?"

"Affirmative," he replied. "All of my feathers fell out. And my nose turned brown." He tapped his beakish nose, which was now brown and softer than a Rito's yellow and hard beak. "I just hope they won't do such a thing to my Natasha."

"Do you think they will hurt Aryll?"

"Not sure. But they took my scale..." A look of pain crossed Quill's face. "I just really miss my scale; I feel so empty without my wings."

Link remembered that he had a Golden Feather for Quill, so he reached to the delivery bag clipped around his waist. It was there alright, but something didn't feel right. He was used to putting his hand back there and feeling his mirror shield, but this time...

Panicking slightly, he felt for the shield and sword. They were both gone, along with his bow and arrows, hookshot, and boomerang. He groaned.

"My weapons are gone," he said, as Quill watched curiously. "The pirates must have taken them." Then he pulled off his delivery bag from around his waist.

"But at least I still have this..."

"They let me have mine, too. I guess they looked in mine and saw it was full of letters, so when they saw yours, they assumed it would be the same." Thinking about that comment, Link opened the bag and pulled out the feather.

"I hope this could make you feel better..." Link said as he handed it to Quill, who took it shyly. "With losing your wings and all." He was running a finger along the soft edge of the feather, turning it so that the little light would make it glisten.

"Thank you, Link. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me." He smiled a little and Link smiled back, then busied himself with checking the Windwaker (it was still there. He drew a sigh of relief at this) and putting the bag back on. Then they stared silently at the two lanterns hanging from the ceiling, which were swaying with the rocking of the ship. The flame in one of them went out.

"You think that's an omen?"

"I hope not."


	8. The escape

**Chapter 8: The escape**

The next morning, the only light in the cabin was the lantern's flame and the sunlight that came through the tiny opening on the door. Quill and Link had both fallen asleep on each other's shoulders, but Quill woke up before Link. He stood up, stretched, checked on Link, and walked over to the door to peer out the window.

Looking out the window, he saw the deck of the ship they were on. It appeared that the pirate crew was larger than Tetra's, and it was the same with the ship. With the taste of the air filtering between the bars, he knew they weren't near Feather Flats anymore.

"'Hoy, Link... Are you awake?" an unfamiliar voice came from behind Quill, Quill turned around a looked for the source of the noise, but there was none to be seen. Then, he spotted something blue glowing in Link's pocket. He cautiously pulled the gossip stone out by the string.

"Hey, you're not Link," Tetra's voice said from the stone. "But at least you're awake."

"Hello, miss scary pirate," Quill said. "Would you like me to wake up Link? He is a bit of a heavy sleeper..."

"Ah, no, not yet. I wanted to make sure Link and his sis were okay. Forsaken Fortress and my ship was attacked yesterday by another pirate crew- that was scary, even for me. Luckily, the King of Red Lions got out in time; the place was absolute havoc. They got the Golden Talon..."

"I happen to know that already," Quill replied. "Link, Aryll, my daughter, and I are being held captive on the pirate ship."

"That's right, you were supposed to be missing for a while."

"I'm alive."

"So, what happened?"

"The pirates invaded Feather Flats - new name for Forsaken Fortress - and took the Talon and the three kids. You told me some of that."

"I knew all that info already. Jeez, I wonder why I asked anyway. Is Link still asleep?"

"Yes."

"Wake him up for me. Oh, and thanks for answering." Quill nodded, and still holding the stone in one hand, he shook Link awake.

"Herm-wha?"

"Link, your gossip stone..."

"Who?"

"The stone."

"Who on the st..st..." He yawned. "Never mind." He took the stone from Quill and stared into its watery depths.

"Hullo?"

"Snap outta it already. Honestly, you wake up so slowly. Heh heh. King of Red Lions-" Link was suddenly awake and alert- "is still okay." He relaxed.

"The pirates have attacked my ship."

"Is it still intact?"

"Well, it isn't seriously harmed. But they certainly outnumbered my crew."

"They certainly did," Quill said from his usual position at the door. He was peering out the window again. "They're all scrambling around like ants on deck."

"Anyway, wanted to make sure you're alive and fine. Oh yeah, and we're watching the pirate ship from a distance right now. Turns out that the wind has changed course to the north... and 'Feather Flats' - as your post-man bud said - well, the ship and my ship had just passed it. It was on the left. I am assuming we're not in the Great Sea anymore. We're in the Northern Seas. Yeah, cheesy name. Well, whadya have to say about that?"

"...You're watching the ship?"

"Okay, maybe I talked a little too much."

"I knew this would happen," Quill said quietly. "How the pirates could take us to some foreign land. These are no ordinary pirates. They're scary."

"Hey, we're supposed to be scary!" Tetra shot back.

"Cool it," Link said. "Or I'm going to put the stone back in my pocket." Then he heard Tetra grumble something about staring at fibers.

"Well, I will contact you later, meanwhile you'll have to find some way to get out of there. I had a feeling that the pirates took all your good weapons, but I sure they left something. See ya."

"Alright." he replied, and the stone fell dark in his hand. He slipped the stone back in he pocket, just as Quill left his position and crouched next to Link, right up close so his nose was about 6 inches from Link's face.

"Listen," He whispered. "I have a bit of a plan..."

* * *

All morning and day until just after sunset, they were talking about how they would escape, and making Quill's plan better and better until it was almost fool-proof. When the sun finally went down, they took a short nap, and when it was completely dark, the flurry they had been hearing on deck was quiet. Then, they got to work.

As Link unraveled the rope for his grappling hook, Quill (who was taller) took the lantern from its rope, where it had been hanging from the ceiling. He then carried it over to the door, and set it down. It would serve as extra lighting for sneaking around deck.

Link pushed the claws of the grappling hook between the bars on the window on the door, and let some slack on the rope. The claws were now hanging down from the window, but on the other side. When he was sure that the claws were about level with the lock on the door, he handed the rope to Quill, and stepped aside. Quill stuck his hand through the window and grabbed the section of the rope that was hanging on the other side, and made it swing.

Back and forth, back and forth, until it abruptly stopped on the far right. Quill gave a thumbs-up with one hand to show that the claws had indeed gotten hooked onto the lock, and then using both hands, grabbed the rope that was on his side of the door and pulled.

The lock would not budge. Link added his own strength, and suddenly they heard the sound they were listening for - click! - and the lock turned, sending them off balance when the hook came undone. Link turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Quill and Link gave a silent cheer, picked up the lantern and grappling hook, then proceeded.

It was quiet on deck, with no one in sight except for themselves. The deck layout was similar to Tetra's ship, much to Link's surprise. There was another door next to the one that they had just came from that was very similar, with a similar lock. Link approached the lock and turned the little bar the unlock it. It swung open by itself. Suddenly, two girls were hugging him so hard that he almost couldn't breathe.

"Thank you Link," Aryll whispered. Link could only nod. They let go and studied their surroundings while Link and Quill had spotted another door and were busy trying to open it. There was something different about this door - for one thing, someone had scratched "Treasure" above the doorknob. Even though Link was turning the doorknob, the door wouldn't budge. Aryll noticed and nudged him aside, then turned the doorknob in a different direction. The door swung open. Link felt himself going red, and Natasha let out a small stifled giggle.

As soon as the four had entered the large room, the lantern light had caught the glimmer of gold on the floor. In fact, the whole room was filled with treasure! Jewels of all different kinds were all piled in one corner, and various other things filled up another part of the room. Gold took up the rest of the space. However, this made the situation very difficult. Natasha spotted Link and Aryll's things nearby.

"If you step on any of the things lying on the floor," she whispered to the two, "you could knock something over and cause a racket." Aryll, being the smallest, tip-toed between the treasures lying on the floor, picked up as much as she could of her and Link's weapons, and tip-toed back. Then she did it again, this time picking up the things she didn't take last time. Link silently thanked her as she and him equipped themselves, and looked up at Quill.

He was holding the lantern at arm's length and was scanning the room. Natasha spotted a scale nearby, and picked it up. Quill gently took it from her and hugged her, with a smile on his face, and then slipped it into a pouch on his belt. Everyone was ready to go. Except...

"Link, how are we going to get off the ship?" Aryll asked quietly once they were outside.

"There should be a sort of a rowboat on board," Link whispered back. "Look, there it is." He pointed, and the other three followed his gaze to a boat about 20 feet away.

As silently as they could, they walked over there. The rowboat could be lowered to the water by a sort of a rope-pulley-wrench system, but it could only be lowered by someone who would stay on deck. The team of four realized at the same time that fact, and a silent argument in just hand gestures broke out. Link wanted to stay because he has jumped heights farther than from the railing to the water, but finally Natasha won.

The other three reluctantly climbed into the boat, and Natasha pulled the lever, making the gears turn and the boat was lowered to the water at a medium speed. Then she stepped onto the railing and jumped down. She was falling faster than the boat, so she opened her wings to slow her down. Even though she wasn't an adult, her wings were large enough for her to stay in the air for as long as she could handle it.

A little bit after the boat was halfway down to the water, she landed in the boat. It made it rock slightly. Link and Aryll finally let their breath out (they had been holding it ever since Natasha opened her wings) and Quill gave his daughter a pat on the back. The boat finally touched the water, and Quill pulled out a small knife to cut the ropes. Then, they took out the oars and put them in the holders - Quill and Aryll on one oar, Natasha and Link on the other- and they started to row away from the ship.

* * *

When they were a good distance away, they took a break and finally dared to speak out loud. The first thing that was said was:

"Gosh, those pirates are sound sleepers." Nervous laughter broke out throughout the group.

"I mean, I'm sure we had made a lot of noise, but we didn't think about it!" Natasha continued.

"Well, you never know," Aryll said. "We could have made a little bit of noise." Link scanned the horizon for Tetra's ship.

"Hey, I think I see Tetra's ship." Sure enough, the majestic ship was off in the distance, much farther away than the ship they had come off of. It appeared to be heading straight for them, but he was not sure. Then, Link noticed the name of the ship they had just left. In fancy lettering on the side of the ship, it said:

_~SHIPSEEKER~_

"That's a dumb name," Link mumbled.


	9. The international housing of pirates

Author's note:

I lol'd while rereading this. Link does something that is physically impossible in this chapter.

**Chapter 9: The international housing of pirates**

The sun was rising just as the group of four rowed up to the side of Tetra's ship. Since it wasn't moving, they decided they could get close enough to shout.

"On the count of three..." Quill said. "One... two... three!"

"TETRA!" they all yelled in unison. "TETRA! TETRA-"

"We hear you!" someone on deck hollered back. The length from the railing of that ship to the water was quite a distance, and it was an amazing fact for them to find that someone could actually hear them!

"Who is it?" the man continued.

"It's Link and Aryll and Quill and Natasha!" Link yelled.

"That adventure boy from a year ago?"

"Yeah!"

"A rope'll be comin' down, hold on! It'll be comin' down at the stern!"

The group then rowed to the stern of the boat, where there was a rope hanging. The end was in the water. When the boat was right next to it, Aryll picked up the rope out of the water and found a good yard of it was wet.

"They gave too much rope, didn't they?" she asked.

"Guess so." Link replied. He dragged the rope on board the boat and tied an overhand knot on it.

"As I go up, I'm going to tie these kinds of knots so that they'll offer a good hold... and they'll be tight enough so that they won't come undone." he explained. True to his word, he started climbing the rope, and every several feet, he tied a knot. Finally he got to the railing, and pulled himself aboard. Tetra was a few feet in front of him.

"Hi, Tetra," he said, slightly out of breath.

"Whenever I talk to you in person, you're always out of breath," she observed, smirking. "I wonder if that's an omen?"

"Very funny," he replied. Then, he turned around and leaned over the railing, looking down at the others.

"Come on up!" he yelled. "And leave the boat." They saluted in reply.

"So where are we?" he asked, turning back to Tetra.

"Somewhere in the southern Northern Seas," she replied.

"...Huh?"

"Northern Seas."

"Oh. Are there any islands nearby?"

"Well, I have never been here myself, so we'll have to chart a whole new Sea Chart." Tetra looked a little stressed at this, and Link looked down at his fingernails.

"Did you get the Golden Talon?" Tetra asked.

"W-what did you say?" Link asked, worried, not sure if he heard right.

"You get the Golden Talon?"

"Wha- damn! I forgot it!" Link stamped on his own foot as he started to blush. "Dammit! Dammit! Stupid me! I'm such a butthead-"

By now, Aryll had joined Link, and Natasha had just come on deck, with Quill not far behind.

"It...was...windy..." Aryll said, completely out of breath.

"I like wind," Natasha said to her. "You'll get used to it." Then Quill climbed over the railing, onto the deck.

"What'd I miss?" He asked.

"Nothing," Tetra replied bluntly. "Join the party. If you feel you have to heave, do it over the railing on the stern. I don't want a mess on the side of my ship." As if on cue, Aryll ran to the railing and stuck her head over.

* * *

"Look, a new feather," Quill said proudly to Link, like a young child showing his lost tooth. He pointed to a small white feather on his arm. "My first one."

"That's great," Link replied. "At this rate, you'll have your wings back in no time."

The two were in the crow's nest, looking out at the wide, open sea, while Natasha was with Aryll on the stern. Apparently, Aryll still had an upset stomach, and Tetra claimed that if she (Aryll) heaved one more time, they would have to land at the first island in sight at get some sea-sickness medicine. This had made Aryll giggle uncontrollably. However, she was still well enough to give Link her telescope, so that he could spot land.

Link peered through the telescope for the hundredth time and scanned the horizon.

"I suppose there aren't very many islands in the Northern Seas," he thought out loud.

"You're not looking it the right direction." Quill pointed out.

"Huh?"

"See, you're facing the stern, the back of the ship."

"Ehehehe," Link chuckled, embarrassed, and changed his position.

"Whoa!" he said as he spotted a large land mass ahead of the bow. There was trees scattered throughout the island, and lots of shrubs. Building were placed here and there, and there was a large dock with many boats, and large ships (like Tetra's) were off to a far side of the dock. The whole island looked like a fishing village version of Windfall Island.

"I remember you yelling 'land ahoy!" earlier, but I didn't know you meant this!" Link exclaimed. "I thought that Rito eyes were much better or something..."

"They are. Look, another feather."

"What's up?" A voice next to them said, and they both turned to see Tetra standing right next to them.

"We should probably land at that island, don't you think?" Link asked.

"Yes, since Aryll is still sick and we need a Sea Chart." A smile formed slowly on Tetra's face. "Now we've got this whole new area to search for treasure." Then, she focused her attention on the deck below, looking down from the crow's nest.

"All hands on deck! Prepare for docking at the ship's moor!" she hollered. Then, she turned to Link and Quill.

"_All_ hands, on deck," she repeated, and climbed down the ladder. Link and Quill followed.

* * *

Everyone on Tetra's ship, except for Aryll and Natasha, had helped out to docking the ship, and Link and Quill have lowered the deck plank. Only Tetra, a couple of pirates from her crew, and the team of four had boarded off. Several natives to the island had noticed them, but didn't dare to speak to them.

"Wow, this island is smaller than Windfall!" Link said as he stepped off the plank. "But even so, it looks just like it."

"What's Windfall?" Aryll asked as she was close behind.

"Do you think they have a mail overseas system?" Quill wondered.

"I'm hungry," Natasha stated, and stood beside Quill on the dock. She spotted a man on the dock nearby, and waved. He spotted her, and ran to the inland.

"Remember, the people on the island are very different from us," Tetra reminded them all as they walked off the dock and toward the inland. "They may be kind, or mean, or simply ignorant. Don't communicate with them unless you have to." The others saluted in response, and they were about to break off into different directions, until a woman ran up to them with a crowd of people close behind. Then they stopped about 10 feet away.

"Hello...newcomers!" she said slowly in a loud and clear voice. "I...am...the...leader...of...this...island! Who...are...you...?" Tetra looked at her with a look of amusement.

"We're from the Great Seas," Link called back. "That's south of here, right?" His group nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, are we welcome here?" Natasha continued. The woman looked surprised that they spoke her island's language.

"Uh... well, um, yes, of course," she stammered. "Feel free, to... walk around, and things..." Tetra walked up to her, and looked up into her face.

"Who are you?" Tetra asked.

"I'm Martha. I'm the mayor of the town. And you?"

"I'm Tetra, and the guys over there are Link, Natasha, Link's little sister Aryll, Quill, and part of my crew."

"Your crew?"

"I'm a pirate," Tetra said with a hint of significance. One of Martha's eyebrows rose.

"We get pirates all the time. This," she motioned toward the small town, "is like Pirate Central. And this island is called Fisher's Cove." Tetra looked around, and then back at Martha.

"Nice." she replied. Link came up behind Tetra and whispered in her ear:

"Shouldn't we be going?"

"No, I want to take a look around here first."

"Alright." Link went back to the group and told them what Tetra said, and then Tetra walked over to them, having finished talking to Martha.

"Be back here in two hours!" she announced. "Then, we're moving on to catch the SHIPSEEKER!"

Link and Aryll walked off together by themselves, and so did Natasha and Quill. Tetra and her crew (the rest of the crew boarded off) broke off into different directions, off to find supplies for the next journey, as well as riches.

Aryll spotted a small flower on the road, growing from the plain dirt road. "Oh, look at that flower, Link!"

Since there was no one walking in their street, she ran over, picked the flower, and ran back.

"Isn't it pretty?" she asked as she put the blue flower in her hair. "It's so tiny and delicate."

"It is," Link replied. "I'm hungry though. Let's find something to eat."

Walking down the street, they spotted a cafe and walked inside. It was warm, cozy, and had an ocean theme to it - there were nets on the ceiling and other ship-themed items on the walls. There was a bar, and some tables around the room, along with a few windows. There weren't very many people, except for Martha, seated at one of the tables in the back. Link and Aryll walked over and sat down at her table.

"Oh, hello," she said, pleased for company. "I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier- could you please forgive me?" The siblings just nodded.

"Fisher's Cove isn't a very popular island among non-pirates," she explained. "And there aren't very many pirates on the Northern Seas these days, and they come here all the time. So, I guess I was a bit surprised to see pirates that I've never seen before..." She focused her attention on the napkin that she was wringing with her hands.

"Don't worry, we're not pirates," Aryll spoke up. "But you wouldn't believe how far of a way's we have come."

"How far?" Martha looked back up with curiosity. Link pulled out his Sea Chart and showed her the Great Seas.

"There's Feather Flats... yeah, it says Forsaken Fortress... there's Windfall, a large village, much like this one... and there's Outset. That is where Aryll and I were born."

"Wow, that's a long way," she commented. "I assume you must be hungry. Care for some cocoa?" Aryll and Link nodded, and Martha got up and went to the bar as Link rolled the chart back up. She came back with two steaming cups of cocoa.

"I know it's hot outside, but this bar's hot chocolate can really perk you up and give back all of your energy," she said. "The cook never says how he does it. He added some ice cubes though, so drink it before it gets cold. All expenses on me."

"Thank you," Link said. "That's really generous..." They accepted the cups and drank, and then when they were satisfied they bid their thanks and good-byes, then went outside.

* * *

"I'd have to say, by the position of the sun, we have about an hour and thirty minutes left," Link said, squinting at the sky for a second.

"Showoff..." Aryll said, and started looking around nervously. Link noticed her behavior.

"What's wrong?"

"I hear something... and one of the voices... c'mon!" she said, and started running up the street. Link, surprised, followed and they turned a corner.

"Ah!" Aryll gasped, as they stopped to see a group of people, seeming to be crowding around something. The two weaved their way around the people, and they came to the edge of a large clearing, where four pirates were standing, and all four had swords drawn out. Three of them were obviously from the Northern Seas, and the other was none other than Tetra!

"These pirate duels are uncommon around here," a man muttered to his neighbor. "But they're loading on the odds here..."

"You ain't a pirate at all! You're just a little gallie!" one of the pirates on the left yelled to Tetra on the right, who was ten feet away. "You not meant to be a pirate!"

"You're so dumb you have two people to help you fight a girl!" Tetra hollered back. "And you need some work on your speech!"

"We'll beat you alright!"

"You're being unfair to the Code of Pirates in section 23 -"

"We don't care about that black book, gallie!"

"So you're not pirates!"

"Oh yes we are!"

The two fired insults at each other for a little longer, until the pirate launched forward and sliced with his sword at Tetra. Surprised, she fell back, and there was now a fine tear on her red bandanna that was tied around her neck.

"Stop!" Link yelled, and ran forward, helping Tetra up. Tetra stood and shrugged him off, with a fiery look in her eyes.

"Always acting before you can think," she hissed at him. "I need no help-"

"Ahahahahaha!" the pirate laughed. "You got yourself a boyfriend! You are not a pirate!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Tetra shot back, and then to Link, "Help me here!"

It suddenly became clear to the crowd and Link that having a boyfriend was Tetra's weakest point; she looked truly desperate now. Link drew out his shield and sword, and Aryll walked up to him and drew hers out, and the three faced the pirates.

"Oh, now you have kiddy backups, how schweet!" the pirate laughed, and his friends did the same. The crowd murmured. Then he tried a horizontal slice on Tetra, she blocked it with her own knife with a clang, and the battle began!


	10. I hail to you

**Chapter 10: I hail to you**

Tetra launched forward and swung the sword out in front of her, blocking the first pirate's attack. Link stepped off to the side and was in battle with another one, and Aryll was fending off the last.

After a few minutes, it was obvious that either team wasn't having much luck against each other.

"We're too evenly matched!" Tetra snarled at her opponent. "You were stupid in the first place to pick a fight against a foreigner-"

"To heck with it, lassie, we're slackin' on purpose! What, you want us to give it'll we got?" the pirate shot back, and without waiting for an answer, he yelled to his companions, "They're to easy, eh?" The pirate going against Aryll got the message first, and he started to block more often, and feinting. It was all Aryll could do to keep from falling over.

"Link!" she cried out. "By ourselves we can't do it!" Tetra heard her and immediately whapped her pirate with the flat of her blade and barked out, "We're ants and we're separate! What's up with that?"

"I've got the message already!" Link replied, and ran over to where Tetra and Aryll were standing, his pirate running after him.

"Ready? Horizontal slice and parry, go!" Tetra said, and the three leapt forward at their opponents, blocked their attacks with their swords, jumped to the side, and whipped the flat side of the blades close to the ground, with such force that they tripped up the pirates.

The three were now on their backs on the ground, and Tetra, Link, and Aryll were standing off a distance, as the crowd was cheering. One of the pirates, the one that had started the duel, slowly got up and faced Tetra, then walked toward her. The three tensed up as he did this, but then he held out his hand.

"You three are definitely the most bonded pirates on the Northern Seas. I hail to you." he said. Tetra blushed as she took his hand and shook it, looking down at her feet as she let go.

* * *

Back at the cafe, Link, Aryll and Tetra were sitting at the bar, discussing the duel that was 15 minutes ago.

"I don't understand why he called us pirates, though," Aryll commented. "I most certainly didn't fight like one."

"You did swell, though," Tetra replied. "Was that your first time?"

"No, my third. First time was against Orca, second was at Feather Flats. Why did that duel start, anyway?" she asked, and Tetra leaned forward and put her elbows on the counter, and her chin in her hands.

"A pirate duel starts when one pirate thinks that he's better than the other," she explained. "It's basically a battle of wit and strength. It doesn't matter how many people are in it, just as long as there is the same number of people on each side. Sometimes it's for treasure, and sometimes they'll last until they kill each other, but usually they happen when a pirate from a different ocean comes to their ocean. It ends when one of the sides admit defeat and say: 'I hail to you'. I guess it automatically means the winner is better than the other, so the loser looks up to his opponent."

"So, why did he do it?" Link asked. "Was it because he wanted to see how tough a foreign pirate from the Great Seas was?" Tetra nodded.

A clap of thunder sounded outside, and the three jumped. Tetra got up from her seat and looked out the window.

"I swear the sun was out a little while ago!" she exclaimed. "And the sky was clear with not a cloud in sight!" Some people who were outside that had gotten caught in the sudden storm rushed into the cafe, and a waitress from behind the counter gave them all towels.

"It's rainin' like 'ell out there! Cats and dogs!" one of the men said at he dried his face. "Suddenly the sky grew dark an' there was this wall o' rain that just, washed over... you can 'ardly see."

The group sat down at some of the tables, as Link jumped down from his seat and opened the door to look outside. True to the man's words, there were big, fat water droplets hammering down, and lightning flashed across the sky. Link counted the seconds, and he had just gotten to 2 when the thunder was heard. He closed the door.

"We're rained in!" he announced. "The storm is really close."

"My crew!" Tetra said with an air of panic.

"What about Quill and Natasha?" Link wondered. "I hope they'll be okay." Just then, some more people entered the cafe. Among them was Quill and Natasha. They spotted Link and Aryll and hurried over to them, and the waitress offered them towels.

"It's really pouring out there," Quill said as he briefly wiped his face with a towel, and started straightening his feathers, which had now multiplied to many. "Nattie and I made it just in time. The storm just keeps getting worse by the moments."

"At this rate, it'll probably turn into a hurricane or something," Natasha said. She was wringing out her shirt. Tetra, Link, Quill, and Natasha all sat down at the bar, where Aryll had been watching everything from her seat.

"I suppose we'll be stuck here for a while," she commented.

* * *

"It's drizzling!" Tetra cried as she opened the door. "Let's find the others before it starts raining again!"

"I'm out," Natasha said automatically.

"Me too," Aryll said. She was fingering the wilting blue flower that was in her hair. "I don't want to get caught out there."

"Then we'll go with Tetra," Link said as he and Quill rose and joined Tetra at the doorway, and then they walked out, closing the door behind them.

"We have better check all of the restaurants and shops," Tetra told them as they walked up the empty street toward where the pirate duel had been earlier. The rain had reduced to a drizzle, but they were already wet. They stopped at the first restaurant in sight, and walked inside.

"Aye aye Tetra!" a chorus of voices said loudly from a table at the back of the room. Tetra laughed and walked over to where part of her crew was sitting.

"Boy, am I glad you're safe!" she said. "Is everyone here?"

"No, miss," Niko said. "A couple of our boys are still around somewhere looking for you. They went to the ship as soon as the rain started drizzling."

"We're going to look for them now. Meanwhile, we'll meet you back at the cafe down the road."

"Aye!" the pirates replied in unison, and saluted Tetra as she walked back toward where Link and Quill were waiting, and the three walked outside.

It was still a little misty, but some actual rain was starting to fall. They hurried farther up the street.

"Does your crew really matter this much?" Link asked as they were walking briskly, and Tetra glared at him.

"Of course they do," she replied. "I have less crew than most pirates captains do, and I don't want less than I already have. Besides, they're like family. Damn, we're going the wrong way. We should go back down." She turned the other way and Link and Quill followed her.

"I don't see any post-boxes," Quill observed.

"Is that the reason why you came along? To see if they have a mail system?" Link asked.

"Yes. They must have a post office here if there aren't any post-boxes."

* * *

The rain wasn't drizzling anymore, but it wasn't flat-out pouring either. Their pace picked up, and they saw the dock, and their ship. The waves crashed upon the shore in a gray flurry, harder than they would have on a sunny day. A strong breeze blew.

"I can tell when a storm is coming, boys!" Tetra said loudly as they jogged toward her ship. "And I can tell that one is coming right now!"

The plank on her ship was lowered onto the dock, so there was someone on the ship. They ran up onto the deck and she walked over to the door, and knocked.

"How you treat an angry shark?" a voice said from inside on the other side.

"Hello, it's me, Tetra!" Tetra yelled. "You don't recognize my knock? A storm is blowing up out here, and believe me, you don't want to be on the ship when it comes full force!" The door opened and two members of the crew stepped out and saluted Tetra. She rolled her eyes, and beckoned everyone to follow her down the plank and back to the cafe. Lightning flashed across the sky, and only half a second passed when the thunder boomed, and the rain poured down. They ran the rest of the way.


	11. Andrew

Author's note:

OMG PLOT

* * *

**Chapter 11: Andrew**

They had been inside with the rest of the crew, Aryll, and Natasha for a minute when the door flew open just as the lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. There was a black figure in the doorway, and the room fell silent. Several seconds passed. It came in to reveal a young man with brown hair and eyes in his nineteen's, and he shut the door behind him.

Everyone looked at him (no one was in the cafe except for a waitress, Link, Aryll, Quill and Natasha, and the crew) and he busied himself with taking his jacket off and hanging it on a coat hook. Then, he noticed that he was being watched.

"What's up?" he said in a kind voice. "I'm not dangerous." The tension loosened up a little, and the crew were talking again. He came by the five who were sitting at the bar and sat down next to Link.

"I'm Andrew. How about you?"

"Link."

"Aryll."

"Natasha."

"Tetra."

"Quill."

"I'm sorry we had stared... but's it's so fierce out there that we didn't think anybody would be out there." Aryll said. Andrew chuckled a little, and thought for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Well, the wind currents are really messed up, so my fishing boat was blown from the west. What's your story?"

"It's a long one," Link said. "We'll be giving you an earache if we tell it to you."

"I'll take your word for it!" Andrew laughed. Now this is an okay guy, Link thought.

"It's really wet out there," Andrew continued.

"Yes... hey, you're not wet at all!" Aryll exclaimed. "How did you dry off so fa-"

"So, where are you from?"

"The south," Tetra said.

"Wow! Fisher's Cove is at the very bottom of the Sea Chart. I don't know about the seas south of here... what's it like?"

The six talked about themselves and other things, for so long that it seemed like Andrew was a friend. They didn't notice when it turned from day to late at night, and the storm picked up. Finally, they got back to the original topic of the weather, and then Link asked the all-important question:

"Do you think you know why this storm has suddenly come about?"

Andrew's expression changed from friendly to serious, and his eyes were dark.

"That was a dark time," he said. "This is just a legend." Then he turned to the waitress and ordered a cup of coffee before starting.

"Long ago, oh, about a century ago, there were three people, older than you. They were triplets. And they came to the Northern Seas, with a great power in their hands, and they attempted to revive the land that was deep under the sea, sealed by time. They set a curse and caused rain to fall endlessly, like it would never stop. They cast spells to protect the powers from being found and used to defeat them.

"Then, one day, four people from the south sealed away two of the three troublemakers, and the land was prevented from being risen. I don't know if it is really going to happen, but the rain has never appeared out of nowhere before, and it has never rained this hard. The storm has never been this close. They say that there had been a storm for every island." He sipped his coffee.

"I have a feeling that the three triplets have broken the seal, and regained their original powers. They have set out to resume their original plans to take over this sea and turn the world to despair, along with rising the sea floor and the forbidden city."

"...Wow," Aryll said. "That's all I can say. Wow."

"It's almost like a prophecy," Natasha commented. "The three who rescued the Northern Seas..."

"Well, I did see three young people in a pirate duel, earlier today. They certainly had experience for more than a year." Andrew commented. "I'm sure they can..." Aryll blushed, Tetra laughed, and Link raised one eyebrow, then looked at Tetra, and back at Andrew.

"You never know," Quill said.

Well, I have better get going," Andrew said, and he took a large gulp of his coffee. "I'll need to find someplace to sleep. Most of the fishermen here sleep on their boats, but the storm out there... G'night."

Then he got up, walked over to the door, picked up his jacket, and threw it over his head and shoulders before going outside. The door slammed behind him. The remaining five quietly discussed between themselves why he had left so quickly, until one of the crew members discovered a load of sleeping bags in the back room, and they got ready to sleep.

* * *

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Andrew was mumbling as he walked in the dark, heavy rain, but not a single drop was touching him. "I shouldn't have told them. Mark and Daniel are going to be so mad."


	12. Meet the King!

Author's note:

I wrote this fic before I reached the end of Wind Waker, so I didn't know that the King of Red Lions shouldn't be able to talk anymore.

**Chapter 12: Meet the King!**

Andrew walked through a maze of alleys to reach a small lone cabin. From the outside, it looked abandoned, but Andrew lived there. The cabin had a small plaque by the doorframe; if someone was able to read ancient Hylian language, they would know it said "Termina Residence".

He put his hand over the doorknob, not touching it, whispered something, and the lock clicked. He opened the door and walked inside.

The cabin was larger than it looked like from the outside; it had a fireplace at the end of the room, three beds along the wall, a table and four chairs, a sofa in front of the fireplace, wooden floors (except for a rug under the sofa) and a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

"'Oy, Andrew!" A man that looked very much like Andrew's twin said from the table. He seemed to be studying a Sea Chart. "What have you been up to?"

"Not much," Andrew said. He took his coat off and hung in on a hook next to the fire, even though it wasn't wet. "I was caught in our rain. Hey Mark, where's Daniel?" Mark gestured toward the sofa.

"Up to something. I dunno what he's doing."

Andrew walked over to the sofa and looked over the back of it. A man that seemed to be Mark's twin was reading a book, one hand over the pages. Well, that is what it would look like from an outsider's view- there was a window in the book, and it seemed to be a little movie showing the point of view from a fly buzzing around. It showed Andrew, standing at the sofa. Daniel slowly looked up at Andrew with stern, green eyes.

"You shouldn't have done that."

"I know!" Andrew said as he plopped down on the sofa next to Daniel. "I couldn't help it."

"That's alright!" Mark called over from the table. "We should always have a sort of a challenge when we're reviving a lost world."

"Okay, you'll get off this time," Daniel said to Andrew, looking a little frustrated. Andrew gave a sad, crooked smile and made a sound that sounded like "Ehehehe." Then he looked at the book that Daniel was focused at.

"Created a new contraption?" he asked, and Daniel relaxed and nodded. He gently moved his finger on the hand that was over the pages, and the screen's view suddenly whipped from looking at Mark's map, to Daniel's hand, and a small gnat landed on Daniel's finger. Andrew whistled.

"Very cool. Very cool. How on earth did you do it?"

"Well, I caught this gnat and put a control spell on it, and also a security spell. I did it last night; that's why I slept in really late this morning."

"Yeah, you woke up, like, three hours ago," Mark chortled, and Andrew sent a little spark from his hand that flew over and landed on the back of Mark's hand.

"Ouch," Mark said, and slapped the spark. "Well, I'd better be going to bed now. I'm getting up early tomorrow morning."

"Okay," Daniel said, Andrew nodded, and Mark rolled up his map and stuck it in a drawer. Then he crawled into one of the beds and pulled the covers over his head. Several minutes later, there was a snoring sound from his direction, and the two other triplets got ready for bed also.

* * *

"Yawn..." Aryll yawned as she stretched, and stood. The sleeping bag that Link had been in was empty, and so was Quill's. Natasha was still sleeping, and Tetra was just starting to stir. Aryll changed from the oversized tee to her old shirt and pants from yesterday, and ventured out into the front room, which was the main cafe.

The rain was still hammering down as hard as last night, but there was no thunder or lightning. She looked over at the table in the corner, where Link and Quill (whose set of wings were nearly grown in) were chatting. They had fixed themselves a breakfast consisting of fried eggs, toast, and milk.

Aryll walked right over, sat in a chair at the table, and snatched up a piece of toast from Link's plate.

"Hey!" Link exclaimed, then quickly said, "I was about to put my plate away."

"Sibling-hood," Quill chuckled.

"How'd you get breakfast fixed, anyway?" Aryll asked, and the other two looked at each other for a second.

"Raided... the kitchen?" Link said.

"Link has experience with fire," Quill said, and Link shot him a dirty look. Just then, Tetra came into the room. She was sleepy-eyed, had a drag in the step and her hair wasn't in a bun anymore.

"Somethin' smelling good?" Tetra said lazily. "I smell eggs..." Quill stood and went into the kitchen to fix her a plate, and while Link was looking the other way, Aryll slid his plate to the spot in front of her.

* * *

Tetra looked longingly out at the street from the window. The rain had decreased a little, but it was still raining hard enough to keep everyone inside. She sighed heavily. Would there ever be a chance to go back on the sea again? Then, she saw a hooded figure walking down the street, toward the cafe. She turned around and put her hands on her hips. Everyone in the room looked up.

"We're going to have a visitor!" she announced, and just then, the door opened. The figure walked inside, pulling his hood off, to reveal brown hair...

"Andrew?" Aryll said, and Natasha's mouth hung open.

"Huh?" the man turned around and surveyed Aryll, Tetra, Link, Quill, and Natasha, along with the pirate crew. "Do I know you?"

"Yeah! You were here just last night," Natasha said. The man cocked his head, thinking.

"Um... yeah," he said, and went to the bar to request from the waitress a coffee to go, except the waitress wasn't there. He looked back into the room, which was still watching him.

"What's up? I'm not dangerous," he said kindly, and everyone turned to talking again. He sneaked into the kitchen, past the swinging door.

"I can't believe I would go through all of this trouble just to get three cups of coffee," Mark muttered to himself as he found a pot of cold coffee. "I wonder why they called me... Of course, it's Andrew. He must have been in here yesterday."

He studied the pot of coffee with his blue eyes. Deciding on something, he picked it up and found three cups. He poured coffee into them, pulled out a pencil and found a piece of paper. He hastily scribbled a little note on it, rolled it into a tube, and stuck it into the handle of one of the cups. Then he stepped a few feet away from the counter, and held up his fists in front of him, and muttered something under his breath as he opened his fingers.

There was a little popping sound, and the cups and note were gone. A little gnat that had been perched on his shoulder started buzzing off into the other room. Mark went into the lavatory, flushed the toilet without using it, and went back into the main cafe. Without anyone noticing, he put his hood back on and walked out the front door.

* * *

The rain that was falling from the sky grew a little denser for a minute, and slowly started to wear down in the time lapse of half an hour. The lightning and thunder had stopped long ago. And then, altogether, it suddenly stopped. It was pouring for a second, and it all suddenly vanished. The clouds broke away gradually, with there first being a patch of sunlight at Link's feet when he went outside.

"Rain's stopped!" he exclaimed. "Can you believe it? And the clouds are starting to retreat! Look, there's a little patch up there..." He pointed at the sky as Aryll and Natasha stepped outside.

"Wow..." Natasha cooed. "I thought it was never going to stop..."

"Now we can go home!" Aryll said, and saw the expression on Link's face. "What's wrong?"

"I... have a confession..." he said, and started cracking up into a fit of laughter. "I forgot to tell ya... we forgot the Golden Talon!"

"What? What the? !" Aryll yelled and tackled Link into a tickling match. Natasha watched them with a grin on her face.

Everyone, relieved to be outside again in the sunshine, skipped and ran down to the dock. Tetra arrived there before anyone else, and gave a shout when she saw the familiar red boat at the dock...

Link spotted her and ran up.

"What's wrong?" he panted, and then he saw what she was looking at.

"King of Red Lions!" he cried, and ran forward to the boat. The King stayed still, not moving, as Link ran up and sat on the dock beside it.

"I want to surprise your sister," the dragon head muttered.

"You sound refreshed," Link commented. The King chuckled.

"I haven't been caught in a storm for years, and it felt good... here comes your sister now."

He turned around and saw his sister, who had a curious look on her face.

"That boat is cool!" Aryll said. "But I swear that I heard you talking to someone, Link..."

"Yeah, I was talking to someone," her brother replied with a grin.

"Can I sit in that boat?" she asked. Link glanced at the King, who was doing his best not to move. But of course, the King winked.

"Yeah, sure." Link replied, and Aryll carefully stepped in. The King smiled a little and said a low voice, quietly:

"So you must be Link's little sister." Puzzled, Aryll glanced around.

"Aye, don't be afraid..." the voice continued. Aryll cried out.

"I'm hearing voices!"

"You are not." the King finished, and craned his neck around to look at Aryll. She screamed and hopped back onto the dock, so fast it looked like she might have tried to sit on a porcupine!

The King laughed loudly, and so did Link. Aryll, who had been hiding behind Link, soon enough joined in.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"The King of Red Lions," the King replied. "The only boat on the seas that can speak the words of men."

"You're the King of Red Lions?" Aryll gaped, mouth hanging open. The boat nodded.

"I have decided to come here to look for you and the others, as I saw that they had been taken north," the boat explained to the siblings. "I said I would look after you, but because of those pirates, it had never happened. My apologies."

"It's okay, King," Link said. "I haven't seen you for quite a while, though."

"It has been over 300 days..." the King replied, and looked out to sea. A gentle breeze fluttered across the dock, with a smell of salt on it. He looked back.

"I haven't had a human sail me ever since you," the boat said with a smile. "Perhaps you would like to sail to Feather Flats and back?"

"Would I ever!" Link cried, and Aryll jumped up.

"What about me?" she asked.

"There's room for two!" the King exclaimed, suddenly eager to get out on the waves again. "I do not have a sail, however- Link, did you bring it?"

"Yes sir!"

"Unfold it now, and lets get sailing!"

"But I'll need to tell Tetra and the others first."

"Go, quickly!"

Link ran off to where Natasha, Quill, and Tetra were waiting, and Aryll busied herself with unfolding the sail. Her brother soon came back with a happy glint in his eyes, and they both jumped in.

* * *

"Wow!" Aryll exclaimed as she looked out ahead, clinging to the King of Red Lions's neck. The boat rocked as the wind filled the sail completely, and Feather Flats was on the horizon. Waves crashed against the bow, sending up white spray. Link smiled. It was satisfying to be sailing again.

* * *

"It's good to see that you are alright, Link," the Chieftain said warmly, spreading his wings, as he was in Crowhen form. "Ever since that ruckus with the pirates- well, I'm just glad that they didn't do you any harm."

"Uh, thanks, Wollf," Link said, face pink, and Aryll nodded. "Um, I wanted to tell you something... we don't have the Golden Talon. The pirates have it now."

"Very well then." The Chieftain said, and looked a little forlorn. "I would advise that you try to find out where they are now, and confront them..."

"Yes, Wollf."

"Any news on Quill?"

"Huh- yes! Yes, we've found him!" Link realized. Wollf's eyes lit up.

"Where is he now?"

"Back at Fisher's Cove, north of here."

"He knows that you're here?"

"Yes."

"I expect that he'd be here any minute."

"Huh?"

Just then, there was a knock on the door behind them, and much to their surprise, Quill was there, with a full set of wings! Wollf gasped.

"Quill... I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Brother!" Quill cried, and ran forward. The Chieftain shapechanged back into Rito form, and the two brothers embraced. Link and Aryll smiled.

"It's a pictobox moment," Link muttered under his breath to Aryll.

"Are you going to be going back with Link and Aryll?"

"Yes- my daughter Natasha is still back there."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for a cup of tea?"

"Well- that would be nice."

"Follow me." The chieftain beckoned to them all to follow him to the dining room, and he requested tea. Soon the four were sitting down and discussing events. Quill explained the whole ordeal, while Link and Aryll were chatting to each other. Soon enough, they decided it was time to go back, and they boarded on the King of Red Lions. Link pulled out the Windwaker and changed the direction of the wind, and the two set off north-east, back to Fisher's Cove, with Quill flapping behind them.

* * *

"Tonight's the night, boys," Mark announced, making Daniel and Andrew look up from their work.

"What's going on tonight?" Daniel asked in a cool voice.

"Tonight, we shall awaken Termina!"

"Do you know where the location of it is?" Andrew asked, raising his hand like a school child, and Mark held up a map. He flipped it open and read:

"Termina lies underwater 35 degrees latitude and 45 degrees longitude. We happen to be at 35 by 49, so we're only a couple of islands away." Daniel nodded in approval, and Andrew raised his hand again.

"How will we get there?" he asked. "It's too far for our magic to send us there, and we'll need to set up the exact coordinates for where we appear."

"You've got a point," Mark said, and gestured toward the small window, one that prevented outsiders from seeing in. "But I already have that figured out."

The trio walked toward the window and looked out toward the dock. Next to Tetra's pirate ship was yet another ship, but this one had the lettering ~SHIPSEEKER~ on its side. Mark's brothers gasped.

"How did you...?" Daniel muttered, and Andrew rubbed his eyes. Mark smiled a sly smile.

"I asked my good friend Doris the pirate to lend me his ship. A fisherman's boat is way too slow for a journey this far."

"But what if the kids see it?" Andrew questioned.

"They won't. If I'm correct, they're still out at Feather Flats. I'll put up the rain spell again, so they won't be able to see it; if they do, they won't investigate until I take it down. And by then we would have already raised Termina!"

They all stared at the boat for a few moments, but then Daniel crossed his arms and put on a solemn expression.

"Mark, Andrew... if we raise Termina... won't we raise Hyrule, too?"

"Of course not. We possibly couldn't," Mark replied.

"But really! Termina is connected to Hyrule by these woods, and we can't break the warp path- we would have to split the land in two! Underwater! It would totally displace all the water, and this island would be washed over by the seas-"

"I don't think we're going to get killed just by raising a little bit of land, Dan!" Mark shot back. "We've gotten this far and we're not going to stop!"

"I have my doubts, that's all!"

"You don't need to be a smartass right now, right here-"

"FINE!" Daniel yelled in his brother's face, and stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door so hard that sheets of paper fell off his desk on the other side of the room, one sailing right into the flames of the fireplace.

After an awkward silence, Andrew turned to his brother.

"It's not going to be tonight then, eh?"


	13. A spell, a ship, and a friend?

**Chapter 13: A spell, a ship, and a friend?**

Link, Aryll, and Quill just got back to Fisher's Cove when they noticed the ship.

"The SHIPSEEKER!" Aryll exclaimed, pointing at the ship. Tetra noticed it too when she stepped outside from the bar to greet them.

"The SHIPSEEKER!" she cried. Natasha, behind her, spotted the ship also.

"The SHIPSEEKER!" she yelled, and hugged Aryll.

"Do you know what I'm thinking?" Tetra asked when they were all gathered on the dock again. "We should go onto the ship and find that Talon!" They all cheered. Tetra organized everyone into two groups, one to hold off the pirates if they came back, and one to search the ship. Link and Quill were among those to fend off pirates.

"Quill... you don't have anything to fight with." Link pointed out, while they were standing in front of the ramp on the dock. Quill thought for a moment, and spotted a pole lying on the ground nearby. He picked it up and twirled it easily, in front of him, behind, above, and hit the dock with the tip, inches away from Link's foot.

"I do have something, is it too little?" Quill replied, and Link shook his head.

Meanwhile, Aryll, Natasha, Tetra, and a couple of crew members had boarded the ship. Tetra had never been on it before, so naturally she had no idea where the treasure was.

"It's right here, Tetra," Aryll said as Tetra was searching the doors. Then, they tried to pull the door open. After a couple of minutes, they let Niko give it a try.

"Well, they have obviously put a lock on this door," he said after examining the knob.

"Open it already!" Tetra exclaimed, tapping her foot on the wood.

"We would need the key," he said.

"Well, duh!"

"So, they would have hidden the key someplace very... unreachable."

This touched Tetra's nerves so much that she kicked the door. But of course, she was wearing her open-toe sandals, so she ended up walked a short distance away, grinding her teeth in pain.

Natasha peeked in through the small window in the door and saw the glittering jewels and gold, and with her sharp Rito eyes, spotted a single key hanging on one side of the room, next to a lantern.

"The key is in there!" she said, and Aryll pulled out her slingshot. Taking careful aim, she hit the peg that was holding the key. The key fell off.

"Now what?" Natasha asked, and Niko ran off the ship and down to where Link was. They talked quietly and Link gave him something. Niko ran back up and handed the object to Tetra.

"Of course, his Hookshot!" she said, and pointed it through the window and at the key, while bracing herself. The claws and chain shot out, grabbed the key, and retracted with such force that it felt like she was shooting a gun. ("Gods, how does Link get used to that much pressure?" Tetra yelled) Natasha picked the little piece of metal up as the pirate rubbed her arm, and unlocked the door. They pulled it open, and were greeted by the glittering of precious metals.

"...Do you know what we are looking for?" Aryll asked after the group looked around for a minute.

"We're looking for this black box. It's kinda old-looking, like it would fall apart at any minute, and there is a little loopy sign on the lid..." Tetra traced in the air the sign, which was sort of curly at one point and looped around itself. The search continued.

"Hurry up!" Link's voice was faintly heard. "You guys are taking a while! They might be here at any minute!" The search team quickened their pace, when at the same exact second, Aryll and Natasha called out:

"I've found it!"

"Where is it?" Tetra cried happily, but then realized that the two other girls were at opposite sides of the room. Aryll held up a black box that matched Tetra's description, but so did Natasha. There was silence for a moment.

"Hurry up!" Link yelled again.

"Just bring them both," Niko decided, and the group ran out of the room, shutting the door. They ran across the deck, down the ramp. and met the group on the dock.

"See any suspicious activity?" Aryll asked Link, and he shook his head. Then he gestured to the rest of the group.

"They were getting hungry."

"Not me!" Quill said with a frown. Tetra groaned at the thought of labor for nothing, as well as wanting dinner, and the large group headed toward their own ship.

The sky was completely clear, with not a cloud in sight- it was as if the rain never happened...

* * *

"Andrew? Andy..." Mark called loudly from Daniel's desk in the corner of the cabin. He seemed to be searching for something, as there were various papers scattered around his feet, and he had an expression of annoyance. His twin walked over from the other side of the room, and stood next to him.

"What are you looking for?"

"The rain spell. Daniel know it by heart, but every time I do it I need the incantion..." He sighed. "But the problem is, I can't find it... And we need to stall the Hero of Winds for a little longer..."

Andrew walked over to his own corner and sat down on the floor. Although he was known as the least helpful of the triplets, he had amazing memory skills.

He closed his brown eyes and thought hard. Yes, just half an hour ago the argument started, and Daniel had realized a flaw in their plan. Mark called him a name and Daniel stormed out, slamming the door shut-

Wait a minute, he thought. When Daniel slammed the door, there was a rustle of paper, and this crackling from the fireplace. So, the rain spell might have fallen off of the desk, and straight into the fire. There was no other explanation, unless Mark had displaced it, or Daniel took the paper with him.

Andrew looked over at the fireplace, and saw the charred remains of a piece of paper. He got up and walked over, inspecting the remains. It was all scorched black, but he could make out very faint writing:

"_Thy rain"_

"Mark?" Andrew said, regretting what he would have to say, but it had to be done. He mentally braced himself. "About that... rain spell..."

* * *

"This is it, boys! And girls," Tetra added, her eyes sparkling with excitement, and the thought of treasure. "Now we can see the Golden Talon, after all these weeks-"

"Tetra, it's only been a couple of days." Natasha pointed out.

"...Right. Anyway, I can't wait to see it!" Tetra selected one of the boxes and pried open the lid. Nestled in the dark blue velvet was a talon, one that was gold and had a sparkle to the sharp tip. It looked like it had come from a Crowhen, but their talons were always a dull gray- right? The whole cabin breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they had gotten back what they came for.

"Wait a minute," Link realized as everyone got up to go on deck. "What about the other box?" The only response was Tetra pushing it into his hands, and whispering, "Keep it." Then, he was alone in the cabin, as the pirate crew and everyone else was on deck, getting ready to sail back to Feather Flats, as well as eat dinner. It was too late in the day to leave now, however.

Link just stood there, holding the box. He wondered what sort of treasure could be in it, and why had Tetra willingly handed it to him? Well, all she had wanted was the Talon, so she ignored all other treasure- but why?

He sat on the floor in the corner, and carefully pried open the lid, wincing when he heard the hinges squeak loudly. Inside, a potato-shaped instrument was nestled in the red velvet. It was blue, with a definite shine to it, and there was the symbol of the Triforce carved and painted onto a painted band around the opening. There were six or seven holes on the instrument's front.

"What a strange thing," he whispered to himself, and picked it up. It felt like he had owned and played songs on it for years.

There was a small plaque on the inside of the lid, and he studied it carefully. It was a line of notes on a staff. And in loopy writing underneath, it said…

_SONG OF TIME_

Link lifted the strange instrument to his mouth, covered a few of the holes, and blew. It made a sweet sound, sort of like a flute, except it had more body. He looked at the notes on the staff one more time before playing the song.

Suddenly, there was a jerk like someone was pulling on his shirt from behind, and he was falling, falling, falling… through a seemingly endless vortex of white, and the song was echoing in the emptiness and the clocks were whirling backward-

Thump. He hit the grassy ground hard on his feet and he fell back and lay there for a while, on his back, the instrument still in his right hand, and looked up at the sunset sky. Strangely enough, there were no clouds as far as he could see. He had experienced the strangest thing in his life, so incredible that he didn't think he would forget it anytime soon. Link felt queasy, so he slowly stood, pocketing the ocarina, and his legs gave way, so he let himself fall forward on his face, and fell unconscious.

* * *

"Kid… hello? Wake up." Something was nudging his leg. His eyes were still closed but he was immediately alert, wondering who it was.

"Wake up, I'm telling ya... Wake up." Another nudge. Aryll? No, it couldn't be. The voice was a boy's. But it wasn't low enough to be a pirate's or Quill's, not even Andrew. And why was the voice calling him 'Kid'? He moaned. The voice paused. There was a thump, like something being dropped on the ground. Then, a rustle like a person crouching in the grass, and two hands were shaking Link on the shoulder. Link cautiously opened one eye, noting the morning sky and a few clouds-

And then he was face to face with what looked like his twin.

He yelped and jumped up, taking a few hurried steps backward as he unsheathed his sword, and assumed fighting stance. The other boy scrambled backward and had his hand on his small sword, but the shield was lying on the ground.

"Who are you?" Link demanded. The boy stood and dusted himself off with one hand, holding the sword with the other, and nervously pushed his blond hair out of his eyes.

"I'm Link," he replied.

Link raised an eyebrow.

"I'm Link, too."

"Weird. I have never seen clothes like yours before- they're so bright."

"You look like some sort of an elf."

"I am. Where are you from?"

"Outset Island." The boy seemed taken back.

"Island? What is an island?"

"You've never heard of an island?" asked Link, shocked.

"No. This is Hyrule, not Island," said the second Link, not noticing Link's reaction.

"W-wait- come again?"

"This is Hyrule."


	14. Panic and confusion

Author's note:

This chapter makes me want to shoot my 12-year-old self in the head.

**Chapter 14: Panic and confusion**

Link was even more shocked than before. Sure, he had been to Hyrule before -a few times, actually- but why was it not underwater anymore? Why did the air smell of life? Why? Then he remembered the vortex. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out the potato-shaped instrument.

"Hey, that's mine!" the other boy exclaimed. "That's my ocarina!"

"This is an ocarina?" Link asked. "I've never seen anything like it…" He sheathed his sword and held it with both hands. The boy did the same, reaching into his shirt and pulling out what looked like a clone of the ocarina.

"This is daft," the boy said. "That's mine, but…" He felt the edges of his own.

"I was just walking in the field, when I saw someone lying on the ground," the boy explained. "It looked like it could have been one of the other kids from my home village, but I wasn't so sure."

"I was, well, a...friend... gave me this box, and I opened it, and there was the ocarina, with some sort of song in it…"

"What song was it?" the boy asked, and Link hummed the tune.

"T-that sounds exactly like the Song of Time!"

"What is it? I mean, what does it do?"

"It sends you forward and backward through time."

"Whoa…" Link looked back down at the ocarina. "So, um…" He looked back up, at the other Link. "How did you know that it was the Song of Time?"

"Well…" The boy looked down at the ground, scuffing it with his boots a little. "I used to it sometimes."

"For what?"

"Uh..."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a shriek from the castle. Both Links leapt up from where they were sitting on the dewy grass, and they both ran over the bridge and into the marketplace.

There was a girl about their age, wearing a powder-blue dress, trying to climb out of the fountain in the center of the market, and a woman in purple armor was running over to her. Even though the girl was soaking wet, she looked like she was enjoying herself- she was laughing and pushing her blond hair away from her face. Link -the one from the past- laughed and walked over to the girl and helped her out.

"Having a fun morning, princess?" the boy said, and the girl smiled.

"I thought I had better balance than that," she said with a grin.

The woman in purple walked over to Link, said a brief thank you, and attempted to lead the girl away, but was unsuccessful. Then, the girl noticed Link- from the future. He hurriedly messed up his hair a little and pulled his hat over his ears before she took a good look at him.

"Hey, Link, who's your friend here?" she asked, and the past Link stumbled over his words a little.

"Uh- ah, um- this is my friend, from the forest... Milo."

"Milo?"

"Yeah!" The future Link said. "I'm Milo... Who are you?" The girl smiled and clasped her hands behind her back, then tilted her head forward a little, a drop of water running down the tip of her nose.

"My name is Zelda... Princess Zelda."

So this girl was Princess Zelda! She didn't look much different from Tetra, who had more of a serious boyish-attitude. But if they stood together, they would look like twins, or maybe best friends. Then, Link noticed that Princess Zelda was looking closely at his eyes.

"That's strange," she said under her breath. "You look just like Link, but you have green eyes..." She then stepped closer, but Link took a step back in response, and the other Link put a hand on Zelda's shoulder.

"Shouldn't you be having breakfast right now?" he asked, and Zelda gasped, then ran toward her body guard's retreating back in the distance, yelling for her to wait up. Both Links grinned, and they both walked out of the market place, back into the field, in the general direction of Lon Lon Ranch.

"Hey... Link?" Link panted as he jogged alongside his ancestor. "Is it okay if I just call you... Lee?" 'Lee' smiled and nodded.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tetra knocked on the door to the cabin that they had all discovered the Golden Talon in, and where she saw Link last. Without waiting for an answer, she turned the doorknob, and the door swung open.

"Link, I wanted to tell you, dinner's rea-" she started to say, but then she paused. "...Link?"

The room was totally empty.

She walked out and closed the door, then opened it again, feeling foolish but wanted to make sure that it was true. Link was still not there. She then headed back up to the deck and asked Aryll if she had seen Link. The answer was negative. She then asked Natasha, as well as Quill and the crew, but the answer was the same: no one had seen Link leave.

She headed into her cabin, sat promptly on the bed, and pulled out her Gossip Stone. Tetra stared into the deep blue depths of the stone, the inside seeming to twist with every heartbeat- but the image of Link was not there. It was just like holding Link's stone in her hand instead of her own.

"Link? Can you hear me?" she spoke into the stone, but it made no difference. Where was he?

* * *

Link took a deep breath as he approached the female foal- a filly- in front of him. The filly, who had a bridle on, as well as a lead rope, stood still except for occasionally pawing the ground.

"There there... that's a good girl, Epona," Lee, who was holding the lead rope, cooed, patting Epona's withers. The girl who was standing next to him, Malon, watched the other Link in amusement.

Link took another step forward and put his hand on Epona's nose. She snorted, making him pull his hand quickly away.

"Horses aren't so bad, are they, Milo?" Lee said with a grin. "Milo" put on a slight smile and nodded. Of course, on the Great Seas he had never seen a horse before- nor cows. But here, there were no pigs. Hyrule was very different from the seas.

Epona shook her head and tried to pull away from Malon, Lee, and Link, so Malon walked over and unclipped the lead rope. Epona pranced off, toward were the other horses were grazing. Lee then grabbed Link's hand and dragged him toward the exit.

"Where are we going now?" Link gasped, and Lee paused, then looked at him in the eye.

"There is so much to show you- assuming you've never been in Hyrule before- we're going to Hyrule Lake and the Fishing Pond!"

They both ran out of the ranch and back into the field. Then they headed around the walls of the ranch and down a hill. It was all Link could do to keep up with his ancestor.

"Pant... pant... are you sure we're going the right way?" Link called out, and the other Link stopped, and then turned around to look at him.

"I'm very sure. What, are you afraid of running? I do it all the time."

"I'm more used to sailing." Naturally, Lee had no idea what sailing meant or was, so he stayed silent and kept running, Link just barely keeping up.

They finally reached the gates to the lake, and Lee showed him a ladder on the side of the wall. They sidled along the hill and jumped down onto the other side. Then, up a hill, and they were both facing a majestic clear... (what else could I say?) lake. The air smelled pure and untainted, and a flock of birds were flying overhead-

Lee dragged Link to the water, and then let go before jumping in. Now, Link was used to swimming, after being knocked out the King of Red Lions many times before. He followed Lee, swimming so well that he was actually reaching their destination before Lee did.

"My goddess, how do you swim that fast?" Lee called out to Link, but there was no response.

They climbed up onto a small bit of land that was sticking out from the natural stone wall, where a small house rested. It had a poster of a fish next to the door. Link was about to read it when he was dragged inside.

It turned out that the house was a gate to a small, isolated fishing pond. Lee put 40 rupees on the counter to the right, and the man there handed the seemingly-twins two rods. For once, Link was not dragged forward, and he walked toward the pond with Lee, pole in both hands.

Fishing turned out to be quite interesting. He had done it before, but had never used a rod- only the line and hook. Lee showed him how to let out line and wiggle the hook, as well as reel in the fish. While waiting for the fish to bite, they sat on the sandy shore and chatted.

* * *

Tetra walked in a couple more circles before sitting down on her bed, next to Natasha and Aryll. Quill was leaning against the doorframe, watching all three.

"I'm sure he'll turn up soon," Natasha remarked, but Tetra just stood and started pacing again.

"Where is he? What is he doing?" she muttered to herself over and over, watching her feet. Then, she looked up and turned to Quill.

"Are you sure that you've checked the whole island?"

"Tetra, I've told you before... yes, we have searched the whole island, and even this ship. We cannot find him anywhere." Tetra groaned and this and sat on the bed again, next to Natasha.

"Do you think... he'll come back?" Aryll whispered, looking like she was about to cry. Natasha put her feathered arms around both Aryll and Tetra, and tilted her head forward.

"I pray that he will," she said quietly. "He is the Hero, after all."

Quill watched the three girls in amusement. It was not the nature of a pirate to take a strong liking, or even feel worried, for a non-pirate like Link. Tetra did seem to soften up ever since she met Link, anyway...

* * *

Lee was dragging Link- yet again- towards Gerudo Valley, perhaps to show him the waterfall that brought water to Hyrule Lake, when a thundering of hooves sounded behind them. The two boys spun around in place, looking for the source of the noise, and had to dive out of the way; seconds later, where they were standing before had been trampled by three horses and their riders. The riders were wearing navy robes that had hoods on them, but the hoods were down, so they could see that the three all sported brown hair.

Lee didn't even need to drag Link; they just both ran after the riders, toward the valley. The grass soon merged into hard, sun-baked ground, and the horses' hooves started kicking up dust, forcing Lee and Link to move off to the side.

Finally, the three slowed down, and then stopped, hopping off the horses and hitching then to a fence. The two Links ducked behind a rock, watching the men's every move.

Then, one of them turned to face the rock, and Link gasped in surprise before being pulled down by Lee. That man's face was Andrew's! Was it possible that Andrew was this man's reincarnation? And why was he with these two other people?

"Those men look pretty suspicious to me," Lee whispered to Link.

"Uh... I guess," he replied. They turned around to peek over the rock again.

The men were standing around a small circle of stones, and they were holding hands, eyes closed, heads tilted forward. In the center of the circle, there seemed to be a little blip of light, and then it enlarged, looking like a puddle of light, and a figure colored in white seemed to rise from the depths of the light-

"This is getting really suspicious," Lee whispered to Link again, but there was no response, for Link had never seen magic as advanced as this- whereas Lee had.

The figure, who appeared to be a woman with long flowing blond hair, rose from the light and hovered above the ground for a second, looking like she was asleep, and then her feet touched the solid rock. The white seemed to pour away from her body and the colors returned to her skin and dress, and she opened her eyes, the pool of light suddenly vanishing. The three men breathed out a sigh of exertion, as the girl rubbed her temples.

"You get a headache from being raised from sleep in the realm of heavens, you know," she said, in a voice that sounded... real. It sounded like other voices were simply from toys or old records; her voice was as clear as a bell being struck in clean air.

She pushed her blond hair away from her face and looked expectantly at the three others. Lee and Link, curious, kept watching over the rock. Suddenly, she looked in the direction of the two boys. They quickly ducked, and she stared at the spot for a moment. She then refocused her attention on the others.

"Shall we start?" one of them said, and the others nodded, and all four held hands.

"Northern mountains; southern swamps; eastern coast; western desert; Goddess of Paths and Warping is in our presence! Hear us and bring the two worlds together by a realm of forests!" they chanted, voices echoing in the still air.

Dark clouds gathered overhead. They seemed to roll over the sun, turning the whole sky black, and the sunlight seemed to fade away from the world, plunging their sight into darkness, as if it were night.

"Establish a link between Hyrule and the parallel world!" they said, but the girl was silent.

"What shall you name this world?" she suddenly spoke up, and the other three appeared to be startled. They looked at each other, waiting for someone to say something, but no one spoke up. Finally, the man facing the woman rose his chin, putting on a confident look.

"The land shall be named Termina," he sternly stated. "In honor of the Termina brothers."

"Very well then," the goddess replied, and raised her hands, the others doing the same, and a light shot though the clouds from the sky, so bright that the world looked black and white. Lee and Link that to squint to see what was going on, the brightness hurting their eyes. The group of four in the distance did not move.

The beam finally faded away, color fading back in, and the four lowered their arms. Lee, tired of sitting in one spot for so long, grabbed Link's hand, and they both crawled away to safety, still shocked from the sorcerery they had just seen.


	15. Discovery! Coffee has caffeine!

Author's note:

Can you, like, go on your ship or something?

* * *

**Chapter 15: Discovery! Coffee has caffeine!**

"We're driven to insanity!"

"Dun dun, dun dun."

"Oh, to insanity!"

"Dun dun, dun dun."

"All sitting here..."

"Dun dun, dun dun."

"Singing to insanity!"

"Dun dun, dun dun."

"And dinner has gotten cold, because you've been singing about you being driven to insanity," Quill broke in, arms crossed, a smile on his face. "Kids, you missed breakfast, lunch, and now dinner, all in one day."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry! It was just the first time I had tried coffee, you know!" Natasha shot back. "I mean, about the singing part!"

"We missed breakfast?" Tetra said, puzzled, looking around her cabin for evidence. "But I'm so sure we had breakfast this morning."

"I'm sure we did."

"Tetra, Natasha, just have dinner. There's no use waiting for Link, he's been gone for only an hour and a half."

"But I didn't finish my coffee yet!"

"'Tasha, you're supposed to have coffee after dinner!" Tetra scolded the Rito girl, as she herself reached for a cup on her dresser.

"AHA! You didn't have dinner and you're having coffee!" she shouted, pointing at the cup in the pirate's hand.

"Girls! Calm down! You shouldn't have had coffee at all, the caffeine and sugar is making you hyper." Quill interrupted again.

"Well, that's only because this stuff tastes so foul that I added a little sugar!"

"A little? You put like, ten spoons in!"

"What about you? You put in twenty!"

"No, I used only two!"

Quill sighed and started rubbing his temples, when Aryll trotted in.

"Is Link back yet?"

"NO!" Natasha and Tetra hollered back, and Aryll grinned.

"He isn't!" she said, and walked back out. Natasha and Tetra looked at each other, and pointed at each other.

"She's even more insane than you!" they both said to each other.

* * *

"I guess it's time for me to go back," Link said as he and Lee watched the sunset, sitting cross-legged in the tall grass.

"Why can't you stay here?" Lee questioned, as he clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back against his rock. Link sighed and leaned against Lee's boulder.

"I have folks back... home... there..." he said lazily.

"Do you think we'll meet again?"

"I can't say for sure, but... maybe."

"Why do you say that?"

"I can't really answer that."

Lee sat up and pulled out his ocarina.

"If we're not going to meet again, then I guess we should say a final farewell, eh?" he said, and played a couple of notes on it. Link grinned and pulled out his own, and repeated the same notes. They played back and forth, the notes echoing throughout the fields, until the sky was nearly dark, and Link played the Song of Time with double notes. His form vanished into thin air, and Lee was left standing in the middle of the field, waving at where his friend used to stand.

He heard the clopping of hooves behind him, and he turned around to see one of the sorcerers from earlier, leading his horse to the general direction of Hyrule Castle.

"You come from the Lost Woods?" he asked, and Lee nodded. The man smiled.

"Well, don't go wandering around there too much, okay?"

"...okay."

* * *

There was a bang of displaced air as Link appeared back in the same cabin he had vanished in. He ran forward and tore the door open, hopping outside onto the deck of the ship and coming face-to-face with Tetra, who looked like she was about to open that very same door.

She stared at him, completely speechless, for a few seconds, until Link had to take her by the shoulders and shake her a little, yelling her name. Aryll heard the commotion and ran out, saw Link, and started crying as she hugged both him and Tetra. Natasha peeked out of her cabin, and actually dropped her cup of coffee on the deck, requiring her to help mop it up, after yelling at Link for not coming back in time for dinner.

The whole time, Tetra would not leave Link's side, until he said that he needed sleep, and also said that he would tell about his "mystery trip" in the morning.

Quill later informed Link that he had only been gone for about a hour and a half, and the girls drank coffee. Link laughed at this and told the girls to try drinking warm milk after the coffee. Surprisingly enough, they both did this, and they fell asleep before Link went to bed.

* * *

The next day, Link woke up and took a walk to the cafe, perhaps to get a cup of cocoa, when he saw Andrew walking down the path. Or was it Andrew?

"'Hoy Link," Andrew said under his breath as he walked toward him. He looked like he had an argument with someone recently. "Hey, can you, like, go on your ship or something?"

"Why?" Link asked, and Andrew paused.

"J-just do!" he said quickly, and entered the cafe, shutting the door behind him. Link sighed and walked back to Tetra's ship, when he started wondering what Andrew was up to. He remembered how the three sorcerers looked exactly like him, all having the same face.

Turning on his heel, Link ran back to the cafe and pulled the door open, seeing Andrew at the bar, a cup of coffee in his hand. He was focused on a book in front of him, until he heard the door creak open. Andrew looked up and seemed a little startled to see Link there, and quickly slammed the book shut.

"Do you know anything about the Goddess of Paths and Warping?" Link blurted out, and Andrew's eye twitched a little. After a few seconds passed, he lowered his cup.

"I know nothing," he said in an listless voice. "Where did you find out about this?"

"...Somewhere."

"And why are you asking me?"

"I was sure that you may know something about this," Link replied. Andrew certainly didn't seem to be like himself today...

* * *

Daniel watched Link finally leave, and then turned back to his book. Once again, the little window showing the gnat's point of view was in the pages, and this time, it was showing Link running back to the ship. He sighed; eventually, he would have to go back to his brothers, but he didn't want to yet. He feared for the safety of the overworld...

He finally decided to return to his brothers, so he picked up his book and walked out of the door. There was nothing else to do, except maybe side with Link's group-

"But that would be crazy," he muttered to himself, as he trudged up the cobblestone road, shivering in the cold. "They're already suspicious of us so they may think I'm up to something. He thinks we're all Andrew, thanks to Andrew..."

He walked up to the cabin door and held his hand over the knob, making the lock click open. The door swung open, and he was Mark and his brother look up from where they were both sitting on the bed. They watched in silence as Daniel hung his coat on the hook by the fire, and walked over to the sofa.

"Why did you come back?" Mark asked after a couple of minutes.

"There was no use being without a group," Daniel replied. "Besides, I was getting bored."

"But you still don't want us to raise Termina."

"That's not completely true. I do want Termina to be raised, but I don't like the thought of the destruction we'll cause."

Mark laughed and took Andrew's hand, then pressed it against Daniel's forehead.

"Tell me if he's sick, Andrew!" he joked. "Daniel's got a crazy mind there!"

"Will you tell this jerk to stop?" Daniel rolled his eyes, but Andrew was silent, his hand still on his brother's brow.

"Daniel, you feel unusually warm." Andrew dropped his hand, and the three stared at each other.

"Nah, I was just running," Daniel broke the silence. "You see, it's kinda cold outside, but I'm fine, don't worry-"

He bent over into a fit of coughing, as Mark and Andrew, worriedly, looked on.


	16. The Decision

**Chapter 16: The Decision**

Link ran into the main cabin, letting the door slam behind him. The pirate crew and others looked up in mild surprise.

"There's something I gotta tell you," he announced, and sat down in a chair.

"Does it have anything to do with us going home?" Natasha asked hopefully, but Link just shook his head.

"I'm not sure if we'd be going home for a while... after I tell you."

"Oh."

"Okay then. Remember when I was gone yesterday? Well, I'm going to tell you what happened..."

* * *

Daniel was lying in bed, eyes closed, apparently asleep. Mark and Andrew were fussing over what to do at the other side of the room.

"We can't just call a doctor," Mark explained. "Then our secret would be out- and then everybody would know that there are three Marks, or three Andrews-"

"Or three Daniels," Andrew finished. "We may as well have to look after him ourselves."

"But we don't even know what he's come down with."

"Then we'll have to watch his symptoms. Meanwhile, we'll have to put off the raising of Termina."

"No, wait!" Mark suddenly said, and stood, banging his knee against the table. He clenched his fists to mild the pain a little, and slowly sat back down.

"We can still raise the place," he continued. "It doesn't really need four people, does it?" He was referring to the Goddess of Paths and Warping, who was going to help raise that land. Andrew considered this for a minute or two, his brown eyes seeming to be clouded over.

"It's going to be tough," he said, "but I think we'll work it out. We'll go by the original plans of doing it tomorrow. But Daniel will have to stay here."

"But..."

Daniel stirred a little, and groaned, drawing the attention of Andrew and Mark to him. He opened his eyes slowly.

"Am I dead?" he croaked.

"No," Andrew answered, after looking at Mark in confusion. Daniel groaned again, and shifted his position in the bed.

"That's discouraging... just now, I was with the Goddess, and she was showing me around heaven..." he replied, sighed, and closed his eyes.

There was silence for a couple of minutes.

"Okay, we'll just go ahead and do it tomorrow," Mark whispered to his brother, and he stood, banging his knee against the table again. Andrew sighed and shook his head, also stood, and grabbed his coat from the hook.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

"To get lunch." Andrew stepped out of the cabin and closed the door quietly behind him.

* * *

The entire group inside the cabin was staring at Link in stunned silence. Link stared right back at Tetra from where he was sitting on a wooden stool, waiting for her to say something. After all, she was the leader of this "voyage"...

"Well, I was planning that we go back to Feather Flats today," she slowly said, as the others watched her. "But I suppose saving the world from these... people... is more important than giving back the Golden Talon."

"I don't want Termina to be raised!" Aryll cried out.

"And I certainly don't want to be the only Rito girl left on these seas," Natasha added. Quill reached over from where he was sitting, and put his hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"I still want to continue my career as a postman. And I'm sure Natasha wants to experience that as well-"

"HEY!"

"So, it's settled then. We watch Andrew- who is acting strangely- since he may be one of the sorcerers. Does anybody remember the legend with the raising of Termina?" Tetra asked, and the others shook their heads with a grim look. "No? That's okay, we can ask one of the villagers, or Martha the mayor. Should we get started, then?" Everybody cheered in response.

Tetra chose the people who would come along with her to search for Andrew, and follow him around the town. The others would stay on the ship.

Naturally, she chose Link, Aryll, and Natasha.

They stepped outside and chose to wait in the alley between the cafe (which Link was getting tired of seeing by now) and another building. They sat down and waited for Andrew to pass by.


	17. A maze with no end

**Chapter 17: A maze with no end**

Footsteps!

Link nudged Tetra, who was examining her torn red bandanna, and held his hand up to his ear. The others listened hard.

Footsteps, walking down the street, and they were getting louder. Could it be Andrew?

The group shrank back into the shadows, and held their breath. The person was coming close...

It was only a villager. Natasha and Aryll had to hold back Tetra from leaping forward and attacking the man. After a moment, she calmed down enough to talk.

"That's the 5th villager we've seen in an hour!" she snarled.

"In 10 minutes," Link corrected.

If there was somebody walking by the alley at that moment, they would have heard the sounds of a teenage girl yelling ineligible words and something like an iron pipe repeatedly hitting a shield, and a boy's voice yelling over and over, "Tetra stop it or else we're not gonna see him at all!"

A couple of minutes passed by; they had settled down again, and Tetra had gotten rid of her iron pipe. Yet another villager passed by, and Tetra had to be restrained again.

"We're back to square one for the third time today," Natasha groaned as she held on tightly to the pirate's arm.

Just then, Andrew happened to pass by. He heard movement to his left, and peered into the alley. Link looked up from where he was struggling to push Tetra's hands away from this throat, and saw Andrew.

"H-hi, Andrew!" he stammered, when Tetra suddenly stopped trying to wring Link's neck, and Aryll let go of her arm. Natasha, however, forgot that she was still hanging on.

"What's going on?" Andrew said in a cheerful voice. "Are you playing some alley game or something? It looked like you were having fun."

Link stared with his mouth hanging open. This couldn't be the same Andrew who came out this morning!

"Er- yeah, we were playing," Aryll spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"I went to get lunch for me and- er, me."

"Oh, okay," Aryll said, and smiled in such a way that it looked like she could change Ganon's plans for the destruction of the world with it. Andrew's cheeks turned red and he looked away, and walked into the cafe.

After a moment of silence, Link, Aryll, and Natasha broke out into loud laughter. Tetra fumed.

"Why are you laughing? There was nothing funny about what just happened! Now c'mon, let's get ready for when he comes out!"

The others fell silent, and tensed for when Andrew would pass by again.

Sure enough, three minutes later, he walked past them, a small bag in his hand.

"Wait for it..." Link whispered. He peeked out of the alley and saw Andrew walking up the street. The farther away he was, the less likely they would be caught...

"Now!"

They dashed to the other side of the street and pretended to be going up to the town square, while keeping a close watch on Andrew. Suddenly, he turned into a side street, and disappeared. The group ran back to the left side and looked for Andrew. No luck- he had somehow vanished in this maze of streets.

"Break up," Tetra ordered, and they split up to go in the four cardinal directions.

* * *

He knew he was being followed. And it really bothered him.

If they found out where he lived, he would be doomed.

Their plans to raise Termina would be completely, utterly, and horribly ruined by a couple of kids.

He had to find a way to lead them off.

He walked into the general area where the cabin was, and kept walking. He would take the longest possible way home. They would continue following him until they saw him go into a building. But with this plan, they would be lost and lose him before he got even half-way through this maze.

How convenient.

He laughed, but quickly stopped for fear that they might hear him, and kept walking.

Now, there was the sound of footsteps, far behind him. That doesn't matter, he thought. Soon enough, I won't hear them anymore.

He turned into another alley, when he suddenly bumped into someone.

"Whoa, what's going on here-" that somebody said, as he stepped back. He had accidentally ran into Link!

"Hi Andrew!" Link said after he regained his senses. No use running away now. He had to keep up his I'm-a-good-boy personality.

"Hi Link," Andrew said. "Weren't you in that alley with the others a little while ago?"

"Uh... yeah," Link replied. "But we came here because..."

"Because?"

"...we're exploring this island! Again!" Link added, with a sudden burst of confidence. "See, the crew and I only got here about three days ago, you know? But we still haven't explored everywhere, so that's why I'm here!"

"Ah, okay. Well, I had better be on my way now."

"Oh... okay then."

"See ya." Andrew briskly walked in the other direction, and around a couple more alleys, before stopping and weighing this situation. Link now had an idea of where he lived in this maze. What to do, what to do...

* * *

Aryll had found Andrew, and was following him when she saw him bump into Link. She ducked into another alley way and watched them talk, and then Andrew walked off somewhere. She followed him.

As she was about to turn into the alley where she saw him go, someone tugged on her shirt from behind, and she fell back.

"I know where Andrew lives!" Tetra's voice whispered into her ear.

Aryll was dragged by the hand to a small cabin in the middle of a clearing.

"This can't be it," she said in a small voice. "It looks abandoned, and I can't even read that plaque."

"Well, I can!" Tetra said, with an air of triumph in her voice. "It says... uh... hold on, give me a minute..." Tetra walked over and stood in front of the house, closely studying the small panel of carved wood that was set next to the doorframe.

"It's written in ancient Hyrulian!" she announced. Aryll rolled her eyes in response. A couple more minutes passed by, when Natasha stumbled into the clearing.

"Whoa!" Natasha cried. "Where'd you come from?"

"We both came from the Great Sea," Aryll replied in a bored voice. "C'mon Tetra, tell us what the sign says!"

"I've got it!" Tetra yelled. Natasha and Aryll cheered and hugged each other in happiness.

"Tell us, tell us!" Natasha begged. Tetra smiled.

"I can't read it because it's ancient Hyrulian," Tetra said, a smile on her face, her hands on her hips.

One minute later, Aryll and Natasha had dragged Tetra away from the house to yell at her, and how leading them like that was such a rip-off.

While they were doing this, Andrew had slipped into the house.

Meanwhile, Link was following Andrew, when he saw him slip into the cabin stealthily as a fox. He heard talking inside, when suddenly it was overridden by two girls yelling. Link ran toward the voices to see his little sister and a Rito girl (with her wings completely out) yelling at the female pirate.

"What's going on here?" Link barked at the three. They stopped yelling and looked up. Natasha hid her wings.

Aryll explained the situation, and they found their way out from the alleyways to go back to the ship. They now knew- in a way- where Andrew lived. What now? They didn't know what to do next.


	18. Going forward

Author's note:

Natasha is a pig. Andrew hides his lunch from Daniel the Barf-Monster.

* * *

**Chapter 18: Going forward**

"We break in!" Tetra suddenly announced, dropping her spoon into her bowl.

"So, how do we break in?" Link asked, after he swallowed a spoonful of fish soup.

The group was eating lunch on the ship. Quill had decided to help out in the kitchen while the others were gone, and it seemed his work paid off- everybody was asking for second servings of his stew. Natasha held out her bowl to Quill.

"We have to think about it logically. If Andrew really does have two brothers, then this would mean that two brothers would always stay at home while one goes out, because if they were all out at the same time, it could stir up trouble... thanks dad," Natasha added as she took her third serving from Quill, and he nodded. "Anyway, I don't think we should break into the house. We have to find some other way to get information."

"You know what? You're right," Aryll spoke up. "If we just barge in, we'll probably get a big dose of offensive magic or something." The others nodded.

"So... how do we find out more?" Aryll continued, and the room fell silent, a strong feeling of deep thought hanging over everybody.

"What if you studied the tale of the three heroes?" Quill suggested as he sat next to Link. "If the events that are happening now seem to be linked to the legend somehow, why not study it and predict what will happen next?"

"Great idea!" Link exclaimed. "Let's ask Martha if she can tell it to us, and maybe write it down too."

"Okay then- let's find her!"

Ten minutes later, Link, Aryll, and Tetra were in the town square, when they spotted her by the fountain.

"H-hey! Mayor!" Aryll called out, and Link waved. Martha looked up from where she had been staring and the water, and waved back. She then walked toward the group.

"Can I help you with anything?" she asked with a smile, and Tetra stepped up.

"Can- I mean, may you tell us the legend of the three heroes?"

"Actually, I don't know it," she confessed. The three groaned, but she held up her hand to make them stop. "There is a library near here. They may have the original legend there- since, over the years, after being told so many times, it has changed..."

The group was already running toward a large building before Martha had even finished her sentence.

"Thank you!" Link yelled.

"No problem!" she called back.

There was a large crowd in front of the library. The group pushed their way though to find a small group of important-looking men searching the interior of the building.

"Excuse me- what happened here?" Link asked as he eyed the mess of papers and books scattered across the floor. A man -who was just a little taller than Tetra- turned around and nodded.

"I am an investigator. My employees and I are here investigating a scene here."

"I can see that," Tetra said grumpily, but the investigator took no notice.

"Yesterday, there was a very important record stolen from this library."

"What was the record?"

"The legend of the three heroes."

They gasped. How could this happen in their time of need?

"Any evidence found?" Aryll asked hopefully as they were about to leave. The man thought for a moment.

"In fact... yes." Then he shook his head. "If you're thinking about catching the crook, I'd recommend you don't. He might be dangerous."

"But can we see it?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Why not?" Link asked.

"Can't say." At this line, Tetra suddenly stepped forward and grabbed onto the man's collar, and yanked him close to her.

"We need to see the record because the world is at stake," she said in a very low and quiet voice, while still holding onto the shirt, and the man looked very frightened. "Just show us the evidence, and I will let you go unharmed." She put her hand on her knife.

He tentatively pulled a piece of worn paper out from his pocket, and handed it to Link.

"A picture of the library, and under that, an old book," Link read out loud. "That's what the paper shows." Tetra let go of the man's shirt, and he stumbled back, rubbing his neck.

"It was found on the reading table over there," he said hoarsely, and pointed at an upset table in the corner.

"I wonder what it could mean?" Aryll thought out loud, and she and Tetra fell silent in thought. Link looked around the room in search of an idea, when he saw a book lying on an empty shelf. Curious to see what it was- as he was already getting bored with the library- he picked it up and looked at the cover.

The cover showed a picture of a cave that looked like it was carved out from a large cliff. On the cover were the words...

"FISHER'S COVE"

"What if there is cave around the back of the island? Maybe the thief's lair is there," Link suggested.

"Like Jabun's around the back of Outset?" Tetra asked, and Link nodded.

"Yeah."

"How the heck are we gonna get back there?"

"Ride on the King of Red Lions?"

"I guess so."

The group ran out to the dock. The King of Red Lions was waiting there, and looked up eagerly when he head their footsteps.

"May I help you?" he asked, and Link (who was out of breath) nodded.

"We think there's this cave 'round the back of Fisher's Cove, and were wondering if you could take us there," Aryll explained, and the dragon head nodded.

"I'll be willing to help."

They hopped into the boat, and Link set up the sail. The wind filled the cloth and propelled the boat forward. Link made a couple of adjustments, and they started cruising around the island. A few seagulls flew overhead as they sailed.

After a few minutes, they reached a cave that was carved out of the side of the island. They climbed up on the bank, and examined the area.

"Look! Footprints!" Tetra exclaimed, and pointed at the prints that were made in the fine sand. They led into the dark depths of the cave.

"King of Red Lions? We're going to explore now," Link said to the boat. "Would it be okay if you wait for us?"

"Yes."

"Thanks!"

The group walked into the cave and disappeared unto the darkness.

* * *

Andrew drew a deep breath and sighed in relief. So, Link and his companions had a rough idea of where he lived, but they didn't suspect that he lived in this cabin- or so he thought.

Mark took the bag from Andrew's hands and peeked into it.

"What'd you get?" He asked as he pulled out its contents. "Lunch?"

"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Is he still asleep?"

"I think so- he was stirring five minutes ago. He's got a serious case of the flu, I think; he's been out in cold weather for too long."

"I see."

"So... are we ready to leave?"

"Yes. The SHIPSEEKER is at the dock right now. The trip should only take about an hour."

"Ahh! That's a long time."

"Hey, if we took a regular fishers boat, it would take even longer," Andrew countered, and tapped his fingers a little on the desk. "The fishers boat doesn't have a good working sail. We'd have to propel ourselves forward by using a stick."

Daniel groaned, and opened his eyes.

"Good afternoon," Andrew said. In response, Daniel suddenly sat up and swung his legs off the bed. He put his hand up to his mouth.

"Uh oh, somebody's gotta upchuck!" Mark exclaimed, and immediately rushed to find a paper bag, as Andrew hid lunch behind a cushion on the couch.


	19. Encounter with the hobo

**Chapter 19: Encounter with the hobo**

"Ah! There's more Keese!"

"Duck everybody!"

The group ducked as the two black bats flew past their heads. They swung around in midair as Link stood and readied his sword.

The bats flew toward him, and he sliced the first one neatly in half. The remains exploded in a puff of purple smoke. He spun around and found the second flying toward the high ceiling, so he quickly pulled out his hookshot and pierced the monster with a small "bang". It dropped a green rupee. He hurriedly picked it up and stuffed it into a small pouch on his belt, before a rat could swipe it.

"Feeling better?" he said to Aryll as he turned around, sheathing his sword with a _ssshhhh_. Aryll was holding Tetra's arm tightly, her eyes wide with fear.

"I t-think so," she said. "I n-never seen a b-bat bef-fore."

"Let go, let's go!" Tetra said impatiently, and she repositioned her grip on the flaming torch. "We have a legend to find!"

They kept walking, further and deeper into the cave, until it was so dark that they could just barely see- even with the fire burning at its brightest. Suddenly, Link heard the sound that only trained ears could hear.

"There's a bokoblin nearby!" he whispered, putting his hand on Tetra's shoulder. "We're getting closer to it now."

"Draw your weapons, everybody," Tetra ordered as she pulled out her dagger, and Link and Aryll pulled out their swords. They kept walking.

Movement! The flicking light caught the shadow of a pointed tail, which suddenly disappeared. Then, there was the piercing battle cry of the bokoblin, and it leapt out of the shadows, onto Link!

Link pushed the bokoblin off and thrust his sword toward it, but it simply dodged the attack and bounded toward Aryll!

"Aryll! Shield!" Link barked, and Aryll pulled out the family shield and held it in front of her. The bokoblin hit the shield with its stick, and roared in outrage.

"Attack it!" Link ordered, and Aryll swiped her sword at the bokoblin, slashing its arm. It shrieked in pain, but didn't hesitate. She hurriedly put up her shield again as it tried to bite her. Suddenly, it stepped back and leaped!

"Parry!" Aryll yelled to no one, and rolled under the bokoblin. The monster landed and looked around, as she stood and tightened her grip on her blade. Finally, she slashed its back with all her might, and the bokoblin uttered one last cry before exploding into purple smoke, leaving behind a Joy Charm.

"Good job Aryll!" Tetra and Link exclaimed as Aryll claimed the charm. She beamed.

They kept walking.

Up ahead, there was a turn in the path. Littering the walls were the graffiti of people who had been there in the past, and crude drawings.

" 'HYRIA LIVEZ HER3," Tetra read one of them. "I wonder who... Hyr...ia... is?"

Finally, the path ended at a large cavern. The room was full of various chests and loot, but there was no sign of gold or silver anywhere. Link and Tetra stared in awe, speechless. Aryll picked up a scroll that was lying by her feet, and examined it, when started unrolling it.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" a voice suddenly barked form the other side of the room. The three jumped in surprise, and Aryll dropped the parchment.

"I am HYRIA! An' I demand that you leave this here place immediately!"

It was a man who was sitting in a chair at the other end of the room. He had a graying beard and silver hair, and was wearing black pants with a gray poncho. He was fingering a book in one of his wrinkled hands.

"If you want something here, you ain't gonna get it," he said in a voice that was cracking from age. "Everything here's mine."

"Do you have the legend of the three heroes here?" Link questioned. Hyria's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes. Why'd you ask? You can't have no book!"

"Where did you get it?"

"My friends."

Suddenly, they were aware that several rats had crawled onto the man's head and shoulders. Their beady red eyes stared daggers at the three, as their purple tails swayed in the still air. Aryll shuddered and hid behind Link, but he stepped forward.

"Can we have that legend?"

"No!" the man barked back. A rat jumped off his arm and squeaked.

"We need to see it!"

"No."

"I'm serious, man. The fate of the ocean is with us!"

"No."

Link had to grit his teeth to keep himself from yelling. Meanwhile, Tetra was scanning the room for the old book. She spotted a book that matched the picture on a small pile of wood several yards away. She whispered her find to Aryll, and she nodded. Link listened in and understood what he should do.

He turned to face away from Hyria, took the hookshot and extended its stiff chain a little, then locked it in place so that it couldn't retract. Then, he watched the man until he was looking away, and Link stuck the hookshot under his own armpit.

He yelled as if he were in pain and stumbled forward, alarming Hyria.

"What's the matter with you, boy?" he yelled, and Link just gasped in response. He pointed toward his hookshot, which he was holding in place with his arm.

"There was a ninja hidden in this room! He suddenly sneaked up behind me and stabbed me! You must help me!" he wailed, and quietly winked at Aryll when Hyria was looking at the weapon with a look of horror on his face. Aryll had sneaked over to where the book was, and hid it under her shirt. She calmly stepped back to where Tetra was silently cheering her on, and they watched Link.

"Why is there no blood, boy?"

"It's a cursed weapon! It slides in and out of the flesh without so much of a mark or sound, but it hurts terribly!"

"How much does it hurt, boy?"

"As if there is somebody stabbing the back of my hand with a thousand poisoned knives!"

To add further to the affect, Link pretended to faint, rolling his eyes up and falling face-forward.

That did the trick. Hyria was so shocked that he shrieked and suddenly stood, a couple of rats falling off him, and he ran through another tunnel that was behind his chair, flailing his arms the whole way. Link laid there for a couple more seconds just in case, and he got up, brushing his clothes off, the hookshot falling to the ground. He picked it up and unlocked it, and he ran with the other two girls out of the cave.


End file.
